Insurgence
by SpartaLazor
Summary: Waking up with no memories of her past, a girl named Alyssa finds herself thrown into the Torren Region; a region known for the rare Delta species Pokemon as well as conflict with five cults that have killed many people and Pokemon for power. Will Alyssa be able to bring them down, or will she become one of their thousands of victims? Based off the fan-game: Pokemon Insurgence.
1. Awakening

_Chapter One: Awakening_

**Helios City, Torren Region  
One Year Ago...**

"Ladies and gentlemen," began the man on the stage, as he looked over the crowd that had gathered. "As you all know, we are suffering from grave loss. That of our Augur." He paused, and saw the faces of pain and grieving on the people. They had just lost the person that they regarded to be their only hope for peace in the Torren Region.

The man had blonde hair and a pony tail, and was dressed in white clothes. He clasped his hands behind his back and continued his speech. "Our Augur was a great man. He was a hero, he protected our families, he destroyed the five cults. He was perhaps the greatest man the Torren Region has ever seen."

Murmurs of agreement came from the crowd, despite their distraught demeanor. Husbands were comforting their wives, some of them holding them up to stop them from falling if they fainted. It was quite a distressing time for the people of Torren. Even children who were usually rowdy during speeches stood quietly next to their parents. The man on the stage observed this. They were a people in a region of terror and strife, and they had no one to lead them. However, the man had someone in mind.

"As you all know," he went on, walking from end of the stage to the other, "our region, the Torren region, is the home to several cults. These cults are made up of thieves, and murderers, and worse. They killed people with little thought or provocation. They threatened the very existence of law and order in Torren. And our Augur defeated them. That's what made him the hero that he was. We owe our lives to him."

"One week ago, the Augur went looking for one of the cults that still remained," said the man, walking back to the middle of the stage. He looked out into the crowd, and made eye contact with as many people as he could. "...he has not returned...nor has he been seen since."

A wave of stiffed cries and wails washed over the crowd, some people in the back shouted curses at the cults, while others just stared straight ahead, their minds worried with same thoughts as the rest. Was the Augur actually dead? No, he couldn't be, could he?

"People of Torren," the man went on, "I do not believe the Augur is dead. And I assure you, I will work with out end until our beloved Augur is found." Newer murmurs flitted about the crowd, as people slowly began to realize that maybe there was hope after all.

"Who will lead us until then?" called a voice from the crowd.

The man on stage sighed, lowering his head. "With a heavy heart, I will accept the responsibility of becoming the Augur until he is found. However," he quickly added, before the crowd could have any form of reaction, "I can never be as great as he was. I will be the Second Augur until the First Augur is found. I will use ever resource at my disposal and I will find him."

A small cheer erupted from some of the people in the back. It eventually caught on to other people, and the man on stage had to motion for silence before continuing.

"These cults have taken everything away from us. Our family, our friends, our homes, our Augur. We will not live this down. We cannot, we will not, let these cultists, these _terrorists_, these _insurgents_, tear apart our families and destroy the place we call home. We will stand up to them, and we will win!"

The entire crowd cheered this time, especially the children who now had a reason to be loud.

"Long live the Torren Region!"

"Long live the Torren Region!" the crowd shouted in reply.

"We will remain strong!"

* * *

**Cult of Darkrai Base  
Present Day**

It was dark, just as it always was. There was nothing here but darkness and the echoing silence. I knew I wasn't awake, but I wasn't sure if I was asleep. Maybe I was dead. Just floating here in an endless void for all eternity. Occasionally, something would appear in the darkness, but I could hardly remember what it was. I couldn't remember much since the last time I saw it.

_Can you hear me?_

What was that? Was it that thing? Who, or what, was it? What does it want with me? Who is me? Who am I?

_Please, you need to hear me..._

There it was again. Maybe I'm not going crazy. Maybe I did hear a voice. Maybe it's that thing that I can't remember. Maybe I should try replying... "I...I hear you," I called out into the darkness, hoping that whatever it was could hear me.

There was a sigh of relief from the voice. _Oh thank heavens, you're not completely gone. You need to listen to me. Any minute, that thing will be back. Stay focused. Remember all that you can. It will take your memories, you can't stop that. But the more you focus, the longer you can delay it._

That thing he was talking about...was it the same thing that I kept seeing? The same thing that I could hardly remember? He said it takes my memories...maybe that's why I can't remember it that well.

Suddenly, there was a shrill cry from within the darkness. It sounded far off, but it was hard to judge when all there was was black and no depth perception.

_It's coming, _said the voice, _we'll have to be quick. Do you remember you name? You have to remember your name._

My name? What was my name? I think I could remember letters in an order...something that I used to know like the back of my hand. Think. Think. You know this. It's somewhere deep inside, but you...I remember...an A, an L, a Y...

"Alyssa," I finally said, my brain aching from trying to remember. "I think my name is Alyssa."

_I see. It's good that you remembered that. What else about yourself can you remember? Can you remember whether you were a boy or a girl?_

Of course, that was easy...um...I think. "Girl?" I asked/replied. I wasn't totally sure, but Alyssa doesn't sound like a boy name. I had a fifty-fifty shot either way.

_Very good...you remember that as well. It might not be as bad as I thought._

The shrill cry rang out again, and I saw a pair of glowing red eyes pierce the darkness. A mouth was beneath it, contorted into an evil grin. After a few seconds, it disappeared.

_Alyssa, you need to wake up now. It's back. _The thing appeared out of the darkness. It was a purple creature, a little shorter than myself, with short arms and legs. _Alyssa please, before it's too late, you need to wake up._

The creature cried out again, and then faded into the background. _Alyssa, I've sent someone to fend it off and to help you escape. You need to wake up!_

I gathered what strength I had, and tried to force my eyes open. "Come on, come on, open dammit!" I muttered, before a bright white light suddenly hit my face...

* * *

The two cultists stood outside the door to the room. They both had on the traditional robes of the Cult of Darkrai, which was literally a robe fashioned to look like Darkrai with hoods to conceal their faces. One of them stood at a computer, monitoring information as it came in. The other was looking into the room as the Gengar stood next to the bed containing the prisoner.

The cultist checked the door, and then nodded to the Gengar inside, who nodded in reply. "Alright," said the first cultist to the second. "The door is sealed. Gengar is about to use its Dream Eater move and feed off the prisoners dreams and memories."

The second cultist just tilted his head in agreement. "She doesn't need them, anyway. She won't be waking up anytime soon. And even if she does, she can't defend herself against Gengar. He'll tear her to pieces before she realizes what's going on."

"Well?" asked a new voice, as a woman in similar clothing walked up. Her outfit was different in the fact that her face was revealed and it was more of a suit rather than a robe. "How are the memories of our youngest guest?"

"Ah, miss Persephone," said the second cultist, looking up from his computer. "According to my calculations, her memories will be gone within the hour." He motioned to a number on the screen with great pride.

"Excellent," Persephone replied, ignoring the computer. "Once they're completely gone, we'll have upheld our end of the bargain. Good work, both of you. We'll be starting the ritual upstairs soon. I trust that both of you will be there? Or do you need to monitor the computer?"

The second cultist shook his head, slightly disappointed that the boss had made acknowledgment of his work. "No ma'am. I wrote the program myself. It'll perfectly fine without any supervision." He pushed a few more buttons on the keyboard before looking back over to Persephone. "Well be at the ritual, ma'am."

"Very good. I'll see you then.

"Wait, ma'am! I have a question."

Persephone stopped, and slowly turned around to face her subordinates. "And what would that be?"

"Well, after her memories are gone, what do you want us to do with the prisoner?" he asked, nodding his head toward the window overlooking the prisoner. "I mean, we're not just going to keep her here, are we?"

The boss lady smiled and walked off. "Once her memories are gone, kill her."

As soon as she was out of earshot, the two cultists looked at each other, thinking the exact same thought. "Why bother to wipe her memories if we're just going to kill her anyway? Why not just kill her to begin with and be done with it?"

"Maybe there's something special about her memories. Anyway, thanks for not asking that in front of the boss. You know how she gets sometimes, especially when there's a ritual." The second cultist typed a few commands into the computer, and stepped away from it. "There. That takes care of that. It's running on its own. Now, we should head upstairs. It's always fun to watch the rituals." His voice was dripping with sarcasm at the end.

The first cultist cast one more look into the prisoner's room, and then shrugged. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just go. I'm just glad that it's not us she chose for the ritual. Did you hear what happened to that last gal? It was brutal."

* * *

The light burned my eyes. I had become so accustomed to the dark and dreary life that I had been living that I my eyes could hardly stay open once I woke. "Son of a..." I muttered, throwing my hands over my eyes to save them. As I spoke, I noticed that my throat felt dry and my voice scratchy, as if I hadn't used it in a while. How long had I been out?

It took a few seconds, but I finally began to uncover my eyes and face the bright white light. Several blinks later, I could tolerate the light, and took in my surroundings. To my left was an empty, gray wall with nothing of interest. To my right was...

"Hell!" I swore, rolling out of the bed that I didn't know I was in as the purple creature slashed its claws at me, narrowly missing my head and leaving tears in the pillow. Then it jumped up on the bed, and glared down at me with its evil red eyes.

I tried to move, but my limbs were weak. I could hardly push myself to my knees, let alone get up and run away. I rolled onto my back to face the creature. I knew it from somewhere, but I didn't remember where. It's name was escaping me...Ghastly? No, wait, Gengar. That was it. It was a Gengar.

"Gengar!" it roared; an equivalent to the swear I had used. For some reason, it was mad at me and apparently had its mind set to kill me. Gengar held its hands forward, and a large blob of shadows began forming between them.

_That's Shadow Ball,_ I realized. _And he's aiming it right at me._

Grinning his evil, toothy grin, Gengar fired the Shadow Ball. I rolled over and tried to move, but my attempt to crawl out of the way failed when my arms gave out under me. "Shit." Squeezing my eyes shut, I braced myself for the impact, but it never came.

"Mew."

What was that?

I used the very last bit of my strength to sit up, and I saw a second creature in the room. "Mew," I said aloud, recognizing it. And, again, I didn't know how I knew it. But it was here to help me, right? I mean, Mew is nice, right?

The Shadow Ball was suspended in mid-air, the darkness inside of it still churning and distorted. Around it was a gentle pink aura that pulsed lightly, and then flashed brightly, completely destroying the Shadow Ball.

Gengar's eyes widened, realizing just how much trouble he was in. He knew he had no chance against Mew, so it went with its best option. It jumped off the bed, and got the hell out of there. It was a Ghost-Type, so he didn't even have to bother using the door. It just jumped through the wall.

Mew turned to me, and held out its hand. "What are you doing?" I asked, as my body was suddenly engulfed in the same pink aura as the Shadow Ball. It actually felt kinda nice; soothing and warm. I felt something flowing down my arms and legs, and all the weakness was gone. Mew was giving me my strength back.

When the aura faded, I slowly stood up. My legs actually could support me this time, rather than giving out like they had before. My arms could actually move around easily, and didn't feel so heavy and tired. "Thanks, Mew," I said, giving the pink Pokemon a warm smile of gratitude.

"Mew," Mew replied, holding out its hand to me. There was a small, brown piece of paper in its little pink fingers.

"What's this?" I took the note, and unfolded it.

_I sent Mew to help you escape. Mew will protect you as you get out of that hellhole. Perhaps someday, we'll meet again._

_-Your benefactor_

Though I said nothing as I refolded it and tucked it into my jacket pocket, there was a single question in my mind. Who was my benefactor? They would have to be someone with pretty powerful connections to send Mew to my rescue. Few people have even _seen_ Mew, let alone give it orders. Maybe my benefactor isn't human. Maybe they're-

"Mew?" Mew tilted its head at me, looking slightly confused.

"What? Oh, right," I replied. There was something that I was forgetting. "We're escaping...I don't know from where, but we're escaping. I'll probably need you to guide me," I told the pink Pokemon, "I'm still trying to remember some things."

Some things? Ha, I laughed at myself. Try, like, everything.

I looked around my room, for the first time really taking in all the details. It wasn't really all that impressive. The room was a small, dull gray cell with a single bed in the middle, and two random cardboard boxes sitting toward the door. "Hm, I don't really seem to remember this room..."

Out of curiosity, I went over to the boxes, and checked them. The first was empty, while the second held an empty backpack. "This might come in handy," I muttered to myself, and slung the purple bag over my shoulder. "Okay, Mew. Lead the way."

"Mew."

"Oh, you want me to lead, don't you?"

Mew gave a solitary nod.

I shrugged. "Okay, fine. I'll do my best." The door wasn't locked. In fact, all I had to do was press the little blue button on the side next to it and the door slid to the side letting me out. _That's not a good sign,_ I thought. _Either they didn't think I was a threat, or they weren't expecting me to wake up._

The hallway outside of my prison looked pretty much the same. Dull gray. There was a computer by the cell door, but I wasn't going to stick around to find out. At any minute someone could come running to lock me up again. That Gengar was probably on its way to tell its owner what was going on.

"Come on, Mew, let's get out of this hellhole."

* * *

One of the first things that I noticed was the lack of security. There was absolutely no one walking around, no one guarding the cells, and no one at the staircases. "Where has everyone gone?" I asked Mew, as I climbed down the stairs.

"Mew," Mew replied.

"Oh, that makes sense," I told it. "You're probably right. I have no idea what you just said, but you said it with such confidence that I can only assume that you're correct."

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, the room that awaited me wasn't something I was expecting. At the far wall, there were two giant, golden statues of a Pokemon that I knew to be familiar, but whose name escaped me. Dark-something. Oh, Darkrai. Now I remember.

"Is...is that blood?" I asked, noticing the patches of dried red liquid in the area between the statues. _Please don't be blood,_ I silently prayed as I went toward the crimson stains. That's the last thing that I needed to see right now. _Please don't be blood, please don't be..._

Damn, I think it is blood. Scratching several small flakes off the steel floor, I held them out to Mew. "Can you tell if this is blood, Mew?" I figured that the pink Pokemon at my side was by best chance at telling what it was. "And if it is, is it human or Pokemon?"

"Mew!" Mew took the small flake, and in its other hand, another note appeared in a flash of pink.

_It may aid your escape knowing that Mew has the rare ability to transform into anything, or anyone, that it has come in contact with. It can also change other people and Pokemon as well,but to do this it will need the DNA to complete the transformation. If you find any form of DNA, blood, hair, etc., Mew can use that to transform you, to disguise you from your enemies._

_Good luck,_

_-Your benefactor_

"Huh, that's very interesting," I muttered, folding the note and sticking it in my jacket pocket. Then I noticed Mew staring at me with the tiny flake of what was presumed to be blood. Then it struck me that blood contained DNA. "Wait, you want to turn me into...whatever that came from, don't you?"

"Mew!"

I rolled my eyes. "I figured." Now, as much as I didn't want to get transformed into something that I had no idea what it was, I also wanted to get out of this strange place alive. Even if that meant I had to become something else for a little while. "Is it going to hurt?"

Mew just titled its head, and held out its free hand where a small ball of pink aura began forming. The pink Pokemon floated over to me, and placed its hand on my forehead. I felt the energy flowing into me, coursing into my veins and my bones.

And it hurt like hell.

I clamped my hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream and collasped to my knees. Oh God, it hurt so bad. I can feel my body growing larger, my bones stretching out, my hair growing longer, my eyes aching in the sockets. When the pain finally subsided, I sat on my knees, breathing heavily, trying to get a hold of myself. I wanted to throw up.

When I finally regained composure, I looked up at Mew, and if looks could kill. "You pink little bastard. You knew that was going to hurt."

Mew just seemed to giggle and motioned to one of the statues. I slowly got to my feet, which were a lot larger than I remembered. "Wow..." The reflection staring out of the shiny golden Darkrai statue was freakin' hot! I wasn't a teenager anymore, but now a woman in her early twenties. My blonde hair had been replaced with auburn hair, calm blue eyes instead of my green ones, and I was taller. Much taller. The gray and orange jumpsuit I was wearing was tighter on me, but still wearable. I looked down at how high the legs of the pants went above my ankles when the sickening thought him me.

I'm in another person's body.

This person was once alive. They once had feelings. They once had hopes and dreams. They once lived and they once loved. That had a family and that had friends. But now they're dead. And I'm in their body.

"Mew, you can change me back, right?" I asked, willing myself not to vomit. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in someone else's body. "As soon as we get out of here, I want to go back to being me, okay?"

Mew nodded, and pointed toward something hanging off one of the Darkrai's hands.

"Huh, it's a Darkrai robe." I pulled the think dark cloth from golden shiny hand of the statue. "I guess this what these people wear here. Hopefully it'll make me blend in more." I pulled the robe over my shoulders, and pulled the hood over my head. "Mew, you'll need to get out of sight. Here;" I held open one side of the robe. Mew went inside, and I covered it up. No one could tell that I was packing a Legendary Pokemon just by looking at me. "Alright, let's get the hell outta here."

* * *

Unfortunately, there was still a little ways to go before we got the hell outta there. There were several locked doors barring our way, could only be opened by fingerprint scanners.

That's where this new body came in handy. The woman's fingerprint was in the system, so all I had to do was press any of her ten fingers onto it and ta-da! The door was open. Another good thing was that the halls were still pretty empty. Turn after turn there was no one anywhere. It was as if the place was abandoned.

"Hey! You!"

Okay, I stand corrected. The room that I had just entered had a staircase leading up to a metal door-the exit? But here, there was a guard. He was also wearing a Darkrai robe. "Um, hi?" I said, awkwardly, trying to sound normal as if nothing was wrong. "I was just passing through on the way out of here. That is the exit, right?"

The man tilted his head. "Yeah, that's the exit. But Miss Persephone wants everyone in the main chamber for the ritual. No one is allowed outside until the ritual is complete."

Well, time to try my luck here. "She wants everyone there?"

"Um, yeah, that's what I said."

"...even you?"

The guard shook his head. "I'm under special orders to make sure that none of the other cultists try to leave while the ritual is taking place." That was some useful information. These people are cultists. Why does that sound familiar? "To be honest, I'm really kinda glad about that. Those rituals scare the crap out of me."

"I see." Putting my thoughts of the cultists aside, I weighed my options. I could keep trying to get past him, which would be difficult. I could sneak past him, which would probably not work. Or, I could go to the ritual, and then simply walk out in plain sight and no one would care. "Well, then, which way to the main chamber?"

"Down the hall and up the stairs," the guard answered, with a grunt. Apparently, this was something that he answered a lot. "Just follow the hall that has the big-ass "Main Chamber" sign in front of it. Really, you can't miss it."

"Okay, thanks!" I turned around and headed for the hallway. He was right, there was a large, hard to miss sign hanging above the hall. I guess people were getting lost in here pretty often. Anyway, when I reached the stairs at the end, I hesitated.

What was this ritual that they kept talking about? The guard said that it scared the crap out of him. That can't be good, can it? I slowly climbed up the stairs, one at a time, while my mind sorted through all the horrors that might await me. Thoughts of death, pain, and mutilation ran through my head, fueled by something that I couldn't remember. It made me positive that the cults, which I think there are more than one, are pretty evil and quite cruel.

Most of my fears were confirmed the minute I saw the main chamber. It looked exactly like the room where I had found the blood stains. Two large Darkrai statues stood on either side of a raised platform with a circle on it, where another one of the cults sat on his knees. His hands and feet were bound with rope, preventing him from escaping.

Many other cultists stood around the platform, calmly staring on. It wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. They were just glad that it wasn't them up there.

"This is just too freakin' messed up," I said to myself. "I'm getting out of here." But, as I turned to leave, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Damn, I think I'm busted. Alright, prepare yourself, Alyssa, prepare yourself. If worst comes to worst, Mew can kick ass, right?

However, the situation did not take a turn for the worst. When I looked back, I saw an older cultist. His face had several creases near his mouth, and a few wrinkles in his forehead. His eyes seemed to be cold and his gaze detached.

"I wouldn't leave. Persephone gets pretty upset, and kill-happy, when people who are supposed to be present at rituals aren't."

I hugged the side of my robe tighter, keeping Mew concealed. I could feel the pink Pokemon shifting around in there, slightly nervous. That scared me. If a Legendary was nervous about something, then something bad was about to happen. "Um...why?"

The older cultist stared at me, his eyes peering into my soul. "I don't really know. Persephone says that the more cultists that are here, the more likely Darkrai is to stay. Says it flatters the dark bastard. I don't really believe it, but everyone else does."

"Um...do I have to stay here? Maybe I can watch from the back?"

His eyes softened. "It's alright, kid," he said, somehow in a warm and comforting voice that would normally freak me out coming from a guy like him. "I guess this is your first ritual, then?"

"Well, yeah."

He smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's a little rough for you to watch something like this, but look on the bright side; it's not you up there." Removing his hand from my shoulder, he motioned for me to follow him. "Come on, it's about to start."

Perfect. All I want to do is get out of here, but now I'm forced into watching the ritual. And I can't even leave, or this old man would probably notice I was gone. So I followed him and stood next to him amidst a legion of kooks in Darkrai robes.

"My name's Jerome. You?"

"Me? My name's Al...Alice."

"Nice to meet you. You gonna be around long?"

"Um...I doubt it."

"Shame."

A lady in a similar robe walked forward, and climbed onto the raised platform. "And so we begin."

"M-miss Persephone!" the cultist in the circle pleaded. "You can't do this! I've served you loyally for so long!"

The woman, Persephone, nodded slowly. "Indeed you have. And now, you will continue to do so. When you joined this cult, you swore an oath to give your life for it if you had to. And now, you have to. I am claiming what you promised."

"B-but...please!"

"Activate the ritual circle," she said, motioning to two other cultists standing near computers. "Activate the ritual circle." With a loud whirring, the green circle on the floor suddenly turned fire-red. "Oh Darkrai, lord and master of darkness..."

Oh, this wasn't looking good. "You can close your eyes if you want," Jerome said. "I won't tell anyone." And I wanted to. But I couldn't. Some sick fascination kept my eyes glued to the scene.

"...I call upon you, on this evil night, to enter our world!" Persephone went on, raising her arms up to the heavens. "In return, I offer the soul of this loyal servant to be bound to your realm of darkness and nightmares forever!"

The cultist struggled against his ropes, desperately trying to get free. I guess being bound to a realm of darkness and nightmares didn't sound unappealing to just me.

"Voco virtutem umbrarum dominum!" Persephone shouted.

Suddenly all the lights in the room went out. There were a few muttered whispers but then silence. "This is normal," Jerome whispered.

Then, there was one bloodcurdling scream. It didn't take a genius to tell that it came from the cultist being sacrificed. Mew flinched in my robe. It wanted to help but couldn't.

The lights came back on, but they were much more dim than before. I could hardly see the - "Holy crap, what is that?"

"That," Jerome answered, "is Darkrai."

The dark Pokemon sat in place of the cultist, who was now completely gone. Darkrai gazed at Persephone. She gazed back. They were locked in a battle of will.

"Darkrai, lord of nightmares," said Persephone, her voice was no longer that of a dark and ominous cult leader, but now the of a humble servant, containing a decent amount of respect, "it has been over a year since I last saw you. We summoned you in a chamber not that far from here."

Yeah, I think I found that.

"Of course," the cult leader went on, keeping her eyes drilled into Darkrai. "You remember what happened then. We accomplished a great feat on that day. And now, now I summon you again. Darkrai, why will you not join me? Why don't you seek me out like my sister? What does she have that I don't?" Persephone knelt in front of the lord of nightmares. "Please, Darkrai, I beg you, join us. Join the cult that has worshiped you for so long. With my guidence, and your powers, the world would be ours!"

Darkrai remained silent. And then he faded into the Darkness and was gone.

The lights returned to normal. A crushed Persephone sat on her knees, staring at the spot Darkrai had been. "Again, he completely ignores my offer and leaves. No doubt he's headed to Selene City to see my sister." She rose to her feet. "No one say a word."

The two cultists at the computer stepped forward. "Um, Miss?"

"What do you two want?"

"We think we could trap Darkrai here if we had another try," said one. "I'm not sure what went wrong this time, but if we tried again..."

"Get the hell out of my way."

The two cultists looked at each other. "Please, Miss," said the second. "Just one more try. That's all we'll need. We'll get Darkrai, I'm sure of it."

"I said, get out of my way!" Persephone screeched, her hand flying to her belt. Within a second, a large, black Pokemon appeared from the Pokeball she grabbed. "Houndoom, get rid of these disobedient, incapable grunts! Fire Blast!"

Houndoom fired off five balls of fire at the grunts. The cultists tried to flee, but the fireballs joined together and created a huge star of fire, completely consuming them both. There was no screaming. There was no pain. They were killed on impact.

I almost did scream. My hand flew to my mouth, smothering any sound before it came out. What was wrong with this woman? Did she even have a heart? She just killed three of her own people without a second thought!

Jerome saw my reaction. He put his hand on my shoulder. It helped. A little. But the smell of seared flesh that filled the room didn't.

Everyone was staring at the smoking corpses in the room. Persephone walked right over them, Houndoom at her heels. "Anyone else feel like dying today? No? Good. I'm going to check on the prisoner."

The prisoner? That's me! Oh, I need to get out of here right now!

The cultists began to return to their mundane tasks, and I headed for the stairway. I needed out of this place right now. Before there were more lives lost.

"Alice, wait." Jerome caught up to me. "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Um...well, Persephone seemed kinda mad. I was going to leave the base until she cooled down," I answered, proud of myself for thinking that one up so fast. "I don't want to be victim number four today."

"Wise move. Can I come with?"

"I was going to go alone. Have some time to myself. I need to gather my thoughts after seeing all of that death."

"Oh...alright. Maybe next time."

Geez, what's with that guy? What was it about me that made me so interesting to him? Oh wait, I forgot. I was in a smoking hot woman's body. That might explain that.

"Come on, Mew," I whispered into my robe. "We're leaving."

* * *

Freedom. Freedom. I was free. I stood at the entrance to the cave that lead to the base, and just looked around. Nothing was familiar. Dense forests, tall grass, the night sky. It was beautiful. I had been stuck asleep in that base for so long, I forgot what it was to be alive.

It all came rushing back. The gentle wind in my hair, the cries and sounds of wild Pokemon in my ear, the cool night air on my skin. It was perfect...except that it wasn't my skin. Or my ears or my hair.

Mew floated next to me, over the discarded robe. "Hey, Mew? Can I go back to me again?" I expected it to hurt as much as transforming into this body, and braced myself when Mew raises its hands.

However, there was nearly no pain. The feeling was just plain weird. Try to imagine what it feels like to be a tall woman, and then shrink back down into a teenage girl. Your extra muscles melting away, your bones shrinking, your organs becoming smaller...

It's not a pleasant experience.

When it was over I wanted to puke, just like I had when I had transformed. But, I didn't.

"Mew." Once again, Mew had a folded note in its hand. Seriously, where is it getting all the notes from?

"Thanks." I took the note and read it.

_If Mew has given you this note, then that means that you have escaped. Very good, I knew that you could do it. Along with this note is a Quartz Flute, which will allow you to call upon Mew and its abilities when you need them. You can change yourself into someone else or Mew into another Pokemon._

_Good luck,_

_-Your benefactor._

Mew held a small flute forward. I took it and stuck it in my bag. "Well, with all due respect. I'm never changing myself into anyone else every again. That was just too much. But thanks for the help. I don't suppose you'll be sticking around any longer?"

"Mew." Mew vanished, leaving me alone in the forest.

I sighed. "Great. Now what?"

"Hey you! Yeah you! Did you see Mew around here?" A boy younger than myself ran up to me. He had on brown pants and a light green shirt. His was was silver. "Well, did you see Mew? I swear I saw Mew around here!"

"Um...no?"

The kid cocked his head. "But I know I saw it. It was floating really close to you. It was a bright pink Pokemon. You couldn't have missed it." He looked around some more, and began to doubt himself. "I thought I saw it..."

"I guess not."

The boy sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess not. I was afraid that I was going to mess that up, just like I did." He held one hand forward. "Hi, I'm Damian. And I'm an aspiring Pokemon Trainer!"

Of course he was. What young boy isn't? "I'm Alyssa." I shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Well, I would be a Trainer, but I don't have a Pokemon..." He pulled his hand free from mine. "Anyway, today's a really important day! The Augur is coming to town! I mean, you know who the Augur is, right?"

Augur...Augur...that was also familiar. After my quick search of what few memories I had turned up nothing, I just nodded. "I know who he is." It wasn't a total lie. I knew he was a person. A really important person.

"Of course you do," Damian said, smile spreading across his face in anticipation. "Who wouldn't? He's only the strongest Trainer in the world. And he's coming here! To Telnor TownThe mayor and the townsfolk have been preparing all day long for him! I was just out on an errand when I thought I saw Mew. You can help out if you want. We're assigning jobs in the City Hall."

"I guess I could help." It would give me something to do until I decided my next move. And the Augur seemed familiar to me. He could possibly know who I am.

"Alright, let's go!" Damian grabbed my hand and began pulling me toward Telnor Town.

And thus, my journey began by me getting pulled behind a little kid. I'm off to a great start.

* * *

**A**/**N: This story is based off of the popular fan-made game; Pokemon Insurgence. You can find it here:**

_ r/PokemonInsurgence/comments/2s9nf8/patch_pokemon_insurgence_1012/_

**It really is an awesome game.**

**I've been really excited to write for this, and I hope it helps break the writer's block that I've been having for a long while. I'm going to jump back into my other stories pretty soon. Well, two of them at least.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Criticism is accepted, as long as it's constructive, not flaming.**

**Peace out!**


	2. Deltas

_Chapter Two: Deltas_

Telnor Town was a nice little town. Or at least that's what I've heard. I barely got a chance to take a look around. Damian dragged me straight to the town hall. He really wanted to meet the Augur, I guess.

"Wow, for such a small town, this place is packed," I said, looking around at the inside of the town hall. "You'd think Arceus himself was coming with everything that they're doing here."

There were several tables with several people around them, each doing their own thing. There was even and artist in the back painting a picture. Some decorations had been put up. On the back wall was a large banner that read: _Welcome Augur! _There were some streamers going from corner to corner, alternating colors of dark and light blue.

"Come on!" Damian dragged me over to a table where a man and a woman were setting out some food. "I'm back," he told them, "I'm finished with the road. It's completely clean. What else can I do?" Damian's eyes were wide with excitement.

Damian snapped his fingers. "Oh right." He motioned to me. "This is Alyssa. I met her outside when I thought I saw Mew. Turns out it wasn't Mew, but still. Anyway, Alyssa said she would be willing to help, so I brought her here."

After taking a few seconds to process that information, the woman gave me a warm smile. "Well, hello Alyssa. It's nice to meet you." She held out here smooth and manicured hand out to me. With some slight reluctance, mainly because she reminded me of a living Barbie doll and that freaked me out, I shook her hand."I'm Damian's mother. Not biologically, but I have raised him since he was a baby."

"Hi, I'm Alyssa." I smiled back, but that information made be feel sorry for Damian. Either his real mother didn't want him, or she's dead. That must be hard to deal with at such a young age.

His foster mother didn't seem all that great either. Her perfume smelled like something you could get for five dollars, but she probably spent a few hundred on it because some celebrity had slapped their name on it. She had way too much make-up on. She just looked so fake.

Then the older man stepped up. He was short and round, with a mess of white hair on his head. "I'm the mayor of Telnor Town. I've been running this town since..." He started counting on his fingers. When he got to seven, he frowned and stopped. "...since a long time ago."

Well, that's great to know. He can count to seven. His parents must be proud. Geez, when did I become that sarcastic? Or have I always been that sarcastic. I don't remember. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Mayor." I shook his hand. "Is there anything that we can do to help here?"

The Mayor chuckled and folded his arms. "Well, though you're both so willing to help, I think we're pretty much done. The town is clean and the town hall is prepared. But, do you have your gift for the Augur?"

Gift? We have to get him a gift?

Damian froze. "I...I forgot about that. I was about to go get one when I ran into Alyssa...and then I guess I kinda let it slip my mind." He scratched the back of his head. "Heh, sorry."

His mother sighed. "That's so like you, Damian. To forget something so important because your mind is so full of that Pokemon Journey garbage that you thought you saw Mew, but it was only this girl Alisha out in the woods."

"Um...my name's Alyssa," I corrected.

Damian huffed at his mother's comment. He's heard it a thousand times before. "I said I'm sorry. I'm not perfect. I forget things. Forgetting things is what makes us human."

Well, if that's true, then I'm the most human here. Like Human V2. Human Lv. X. Mega Human.

"Let it be," the Mayor said. "He's still young. He makes mistakes. Yelling at him because of them oft won't solve the problem." Damian's mother muttered some words, which I assumed to be swears, under breath. "Now then, young man," the Mayor turned to Damian. "Do you know what you want to give to the Augur?"

"I was going to get him some of those rare stones from one of the caves in the forest." Damian shuffled his feet. "He's a Trainer, so I thought he could used them."

"Hm...that's thoughtful indeed." the Mayor rubbed his chin. "Yes, I suppose those would be good gifts, however, those caves are crawling with wild Pokemon. You'd need one of your own to safely get through."

"Oh, right." Damian's face fell. "I don't have any Pokemon. My mom won't let me." He looked over at me, a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Alyssa?"

"Sorry, none here either." I felt bad about that, too. As if I was letting him down, even though I didn't really have any obligations to him. "Maybe someone else in town has one and would be willing to go with you," I offered, trying to find a solution. "I think I saw a dude with some Eevees when you dragged me in."

"That was probably Professor Sylvan," said the Mayor. "As far as I know, he's not a trainer. At least, not anymore. He's got a bunch of Eevee's that he hands out to new Trainers when they head out on adventures."

"That's it!" Damian exclaimed, snapping his fingers. His face had gone from full-on hopeless to a 'let's take on the world and kick it's ass' hopeful. "Do you think that the Professor would give us a Pokemon? We're both new Trainers, and I want to go on an adventure. Everyone else already has."

His mother folded her arms and frowned. "Absolutely not. My Damian is simply not mature enough to care for a Pokemon. He can hardly keep a plant alive, so how do you think he's going to do with an actual living creature? Let Sylvan give Alice here a Pokemon. Damian can go with her, but only to get the stones. He isn't ready for a Pokemon yet."

"Um...it's Alyssa, actually."

"Mom, that's not fair!" Damian screamed like a child and folded his arms. Not really helping his case, if you ask me. "All my friends already got Pokemon and left, and I'm all alone here. And secondly, Pokemon and plants are two totally different things!"

"...unless you have a Bellsprout. Those are pretty much plants..." My attempt at lightening the mood had gone down faster than a lead balloon tied to a concrete slab. They didn't even seem to acknowledge it. Not like they would've laughed, but hey, points for the attempt.

"Damian, you'd have no idea what you'd be doing out there," his mother countered. "All the stories you've heard of people running off and training Pokemon are all exaggerated. They don't tell you the parts that are the most real. People get hurt...or even killed out there."

"Why do you care?" Damian snorted, turning his back to her. "It's not like your my real mom or anything."

Whoa. Okay. That escalated quickly. I'm just going to back up a few steps and find a table to hide under. I'm not going to get caught in the crossfires of that argument. The nearest table was the dessert table topped with-_Oh, th__ose brownies__ look pretty good. I think I'm going to take __one._

"Will both of you just calm down?" asked the Mayor, as he stepped between the two. "There's no need to get this upset about a matter this small. I can settle this here and now. Damian, have you ever used a Pokemon before?"

"No. Never."

"I see. So you haven't had the chance to prove whether or not you could handle it." The Mayor turned to Damian's mother. "So why don't we do this? We let Damian get a Pokemon, and he and Alyssa go out to the cave and get the stones. That will be his chance to prove himself."

"But he's not ready for that kind of responsibility."

"How do you know? You've never given him the chance, have you?"

His mother hesitated, before reluctantly nodding. "Okay, fine. Just promise me this. When, not if, he fails, he'll never bring up this silly Pokemon business ever again. I'm getting sick and tired of hearing him asking about it constantly."

"And when I succeed, you'll let me go on a journey like all my friends," Damian added. "I'm getting sick and tired of being cooped up in this little town with no one my age."

"Fine. But it won't happen."

Damian was dead set on proving his mother wrong. He turned to me. "Alyssa, are you up for it?"

"Sure, why not," I replied, finishing off the last part of my third brownie. They were really good, okay? Don't judge me. "I'm up for a little adventure. Just be sure to save me some of these brownies for when we get back. They were awesome."

The Mayor just glared at me for a minute, before slowly nodding. "Okay then. I'm going to call Sylvan and tell him that you're coming." He pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Damian, I assume you can escort Miss Alethia to the Professor's lab?"

"It's Alyssa." Seriously, it's not that hard. I don't know anyone else with that name. In fact, I don't know many people by name. Damian, Jerome, Persephone...I think that's it.

Damian grabbed my hand. "Come on, Alyssa. Let's go." He led me toward the door. His mother and the Mayor couldn't hear us. "Hey, thanks for choosing to come along with me. Most people probably wouldn't."

I smiled. I didn't know what to say. "Well, you're welcome. It just seemed like the right thing to do." Also, I figured that going on a journey would be the best way to figure out who I am. But, of course, I kept that part to myself."

"Move it, kids. You're blocking the door." Two tall men were trying to get through, but Damian and I were in the way. "Come on, go play somewhere else." They shoved past us before either of us had a chance to react.

"Well, they were rude. Who are they?"

Damian shook his head. "I don't know. I've never seen them before. They could be some people that came from Midna Town to see the Augur." He shrugged. "Eh, whatever. Forget them. Let's go get our Pokemon!"

* * *

"Here we are," Damian said, motioning to the large yellow brick building in front of us. "This is Professor Sylvan's Pokemon Lab." He opened the door and motioned for me to enter. "Ladies first."

"Thank you." I smiled. "What a gentleman you are."

The first thing that I noticed about the lab were the two figures towards the back, discussing something. One of them was wearing a lab coat and had glasses on, the picture of geek. _So, must be Professor Sylvan,_ I told myself._With his reputation, I was expecting someone...older._

The other guy looked like Sylvan's complete opposite. He was dressed in a black trenchcoat with a black hat, the picture of evil. _And who's this? His evil twin brother? That outfit looks really familiar, but I can't place it._

"Professor, I don't think that you understand the value of these Pokemon," said the man in black. "They're really quite rare, and they would be a valuable asset to your research." In one hand he was holding some Pokeballs.

Sylvan was looking at a computer screen, writing down some of the numbers on his clipboard. "Yes, I know that. Delta Pokemon are really rare. But why do you care about them, Rueka? I know some of the things that you've done. You don't care about life. Why are you trying to protect these three Pokemon?"

The man in black, apparently Rueka, sighed. "I know what I've done. I'm merciless. That's who I am now. But I don't want any needless death. These Deltas, they're too important to just kill them. We invested years into making them." He motioned to a brown-furred Pokemon sitting on top of a bookshelf. "You keep dozens of Eevee around here, Surely these three won't give you any more trouble."

Damian gave me a weird look, and then shrugged. "Um...hello?" he said, breaking the conversation between Professor Sylvan and Rueka. "Hi. I'm Damian, and this is Alyssa. We're here to get a Pokemon, if we can."

The man called Rueka looked at us for a minute, rubbing his chin. "Interesting. You want Pokemon, and I have some Pokemon that I don't need." He looked over his shoulder to Sylvan. "Professor, if you won't take these Pokemon, then perhaps these children will."

"And suppose they don't?" Sylvan hadn't even looked up from the computer.

"Then I'll release them. They'll surely die in the wild, and as I said before, I don't want any needless death."

Sylvan sighed. "Fine. Put them on the table."

Rueka placed the three Pokeballs on a nearby table and walked out.

The minute the door slammed behind Rueka, Sylvan perked up. "So," he said, putting his clipboard down and turning to us, "you both want a Pokemon, right?"

"That's what we said when we walked in like, thirty seconds ago," I answered, still surprised by the salt in my tone. "And, if you don't mind me asking, who was that guy? He was really weird."

Sylvan bit his lip. "That was Rueka. He was one of my colleagues in University. He's a brilliant man. Unfortunately, he's also now a leader of one of the cults. The Perfection Cult, I believe."

Damian eyes widened. "A cult leader? Professor, those people are evil! The Augur said so! You're not supposed to talk to people like that! They're...they're..."

"Damian, Alyssa, have either of you heard of Delta Pokemon?" asked the Professor.

"Of course I have," I replied. "Well, just a minute ago, but that still counts."

Sylvan nodded slowly, and then continued with his lecture. "Delta Pokemon are Pokemon that had different types than they normally do. Think of an Electric-Type Dragonite, or a Water-Type Porygon. Scientists have altered their DNA, changing their physical appearance as well as their types."

"That man said that those," Damian pointed to the Pokeballs on the table, "were Delta Pokemon, right?"

Sylvan picked up one of the Pokeballs. "Yes. These are the Delta forms of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Pokemon like these are shunned by other Pokemon, which is why few Trainers use them. The rest of their team ostracizes the Deltas. Another reason that they're rare is that most people think that they're freaks, and drive them off. Some even kill them."

He put the Pokeball down. "Letting a Delta Pokemon die would be a tragedy. There's so much that we can learn from them, but no one wants to use them. However, if you two are willing to take one of them, then that would go a long way to helping my research. If you don't want to, that's understandable. I'll still offer the Eevee to you."

My mind was mulling over the thought of what Pokemon to go with. To Delta, or not to Delta? That is the question.

_Do I want a Delta? It seems so sad to be one. They don't make friends, no one seems to like them. They can mess up team coordination, as well. But, on the other hand, the whole concept of Delta Pokemon seems pretty badass. If I'm facing an Ice-Type, and I send out Bulbasaur, then they'll be expecting an easy win. But then...Flamethrower, bitch!_

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with a Delta. A genetically modified Pokemon paired with a Trainer with no memories. We'll be freaks together.

"Can...can we see them?" asked Damian, still undecided.

Professor Sylvan released each of the Pokemon. At first, I was shocked. I had no idea how I knew what regular Bulbasaurs, Charmanders, and Squirtles looked like, but I knew that these looked nothing like them.

Bulbasaur was no longer green, but pink. The bulb on its back was a dark green, with purple and pink spots covering it. "This is Delta Bulbasaur, a Fairy and Psychic Type," Sylvan said. "It's a girl, and she's really quite shy.

She did look shy. Bulbasaur looked up and Damian and I, and then slowly lowered her head and picked at something on the table. There was absolutely no look of joy on her face.

Charmander looked...well, dead. Instead of that orange lizard body, it was now what appeared to be a skeleton. It's skull had no eyes, and a crack on the top of it. The flame on the end of its tail was bright blue. "This is Delta Charmander, a Ghost and Dragon Type. It's a boy, and he's really energetic."

To be honest, I didn't see any energy coming from him. He just stood there, not moving, glaring at us with no eyes. Which is pretty unnerving, just so you know.

Squirtle looked like a friggin' ninja. His body was a dark purple, and he had a bandana with eye cut-outs over his face. "This is Delta Squirtle, a Fighting and Dark type. It's a boy, and he's quick into fights."

I leaned in to take a closer look, and Squirtle lashed out with one of his hands, nearly hitting me in the nose. I managed to pull back in time. "Right, sorry. Didn't mean to invade your personal space."

"So," Sylvan said. "You've seen your options. What are you going to choose?"

"Ladies first," Damian said, looking at me. I knew that he wanted me to go first so he could pick what I picked. "Take your pick, Alyssa."

"I think I've decided already." I know that since it's your first Pokemon that you should think about it for a little while, but I've already ruled out all but one.

"Hey, Bulbasaur," I said, walking up to her. "How are you you doing?"

She just mumbled something, probably "Bulb" or something like, and keep picking at the spot on the table.

"Not much of a talker, are you?"

She shrugged.

"Would you like to come with me? I need a Pokemon, and I think that you're the one."

Bulbasaur looked up at me, tilting her head to the side. "Bulb?" she asked.

"Um...yeah, I want to chose you as my Pokemon," I replied, hopefully answering the question that she had asked. "I think that you're the best option here. The Charmander would give me nightmares. Squirtle tried to kill me. And Eevee's suck."

"Ee!" shouted the Eevee on the shelf. Apparently, it didn't like having a freak Pokemon chosen instead of it. Well, it was just going to have to deal with it.

I held my hand out to the Bulbasaur. "So, what do you say? Partners?" Bulbasaur tilted her head, and slowly approached my hand. After giving it a quick sniff and once-over, she let out an affirmative bark. "So...that's a yes, right?"

Bulbsaur nodded.

"Okay then!" I swiped Bulbasaur's Pokeball off the table, and stuck it in my jacket. "Professor, I'm taking the Bulbasaur!" Oh yeah, I just got myself a badass Bulbasaur. Things are really starting to look up for me. Although, I guess it's too early to say that.

Sylvan nodded, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah, I think I noticed that." Then, in a more official voice, he said; "Well, in that case, would you like to give it a nickname? Sometimes Trainers give names to their Pokemon rather than their generic names. It usually helps form a more solid friendship between the two, but it's not required. Many successful Trainers have climbed through the ranks without nicknames."

Should I give her a nickname? What would it be? It would have to be something special. Something that I could call her and she would respond to... "What about Alice?" I asked Bulbasaur. I had blurted the name out before I could even think about it. It was a name that seemed to pop up a lot recently. That was the fake name I used in the Cult of Darkrai hideout. And whatserface called me that earlier. So, why not?

Bulbasaur growled with glee. She was fine with the name. To be honest, I think she didn't really care, because she was the picked first, which would have to be an accomplishment for a Pokemon that no one apparently cared for. I could probably call her Garbage Can and she would be fine with it. Okay, maybe not, but the point still stands.

Alice jumped off the table and into my arms. I held my new pink Bulbasaur to my chest, smiling wide. _My first Pokemon...at least the first that I can remember. Maybe I had some before...before whatever it was that happened to my memories._

"Okay, Damian, it's your choice." Sylvan motioned to the two remaining Delta Pokemon, and then to the Eevee that was watching his every move, with a slight hint of concern on its face. It really didn't want to get passed over again. Especially to a freak.

Damian looked between his options. "Well," he said, hesitating as he stared toward the Deltas. "As much as I don't like having a Pokemon that was made by a mass-murdering cult leader, it's sad that these Delta Pokemon won't ever have friends. So...I guess I'll take the Charmander."

"Char!" Charmander jumped for joy, before turning to the Squirtle and sticking his tounge out at the ninja turtle Pokemon. Squirtle mumbled something before slapping Charmander across the face, knocking the ghost lizard Pokemon off the table.

But, Charmander seemed completely unharmed. He hopped to his feet, ran over to Damian, and hugged his leg.

"Aw, ya'll two are cute," I said, and Damian blushed. I don't think he likes being called cute. Most guy Trainers don't. _Note to self, refer to Damian as cute whenever he's nearby.__ Call it revenge for him dragging me around so much. I think my wrist got a hickey from that._

"Hm, I see," murmured Professor Sylvan. "You both decided to go with Delta Pokemon. That is interesting. I didn't think you both would." He scribbled something down on his clipboard. "Well, in that case, there's a decent hope for them yet."

"Squirtle..."

"Aw...poor Squirtle," I noticed that the ninja turtle Pokemon was sitting all alone on the table. His head was down and I think he might've been crying. It must be suck to not get picked, I told myself, especially when you're a Delta Pokemon.

Damian seemed to have the same thoughts I did. "Professor, what's going to happen to Squirtle? He's going to get lonely without his Delta Pokemon friends."

"Yes, well, I guess that I'll have to keep him around until a Trainer comes along and takes him." Sylvan shurgged. "There's really nothing that I can do about this at the moment. I've got another Trainer coming in from Sinnoh a little later, he might take it."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then Squirtle will just have to stay here and wait."

"If he doesn't, then I'll take him."

Sylvan shook his head. "No. I can't do that. I legally can't give a new Trainer two starter Pokemon. There are laws against it. And, even if I could, I probably wouldn't. Everyone would be wanting two Pokemon, and I just don't have enough to do that."

Alice squirmed in my arms. "What's the matter?" I asked my new partner. She pointed one of her stubby paws toward the Squirtle. "You won't leave him until he gets picked?" Alice nodded. "How dedicated of you," I told her. Then; "How did I know you said that?"

"If her Bulbasaur is going to stay, then so is Charmander," Damian said. Charmander growled in agreement. "Their only friends are each other, they need to stick together."

Squirtle was no longer sad. He had his friends back. At least for now.

Professor Sylvan raised his eyebrows. "Wow, that certainly is interesting. The Delta Pokemon would rather stick with each other than go out on a journey with a Trainer. They must be quite-"

"Yo, doc!" called a voice from the door. "You in here?"

"That must be the Trainer from Sinnoh," the Professor muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I wasn't expecting him for another hour." He waved toward the Trainer. "I'm right here, Anthony. And I'm a Professor, not a doctor. I already told you that on the phone."

The new Trainer, apparently Anthony, wasn't fazed. At least I don't think he was. His aviator sunglasses covered his eyes. "Well, do you have a Ph.D, Professor?"

"Um...well, yes. But-"

"Then you're Doc to me," Anthony replied. He was about two or three years older than me, about 17, and he didn't quite look like a Trainer, but he didn't really look like anything, if you ask me. On his head he had sandy blonde hair sticking out from under a backwards black baseball cap. He had on a leather jacket and ragged blue jeans, as well as his sunglasses. In one hand was a guitar case, and in the other was a backpack. "You have the Eevee?"

With a sigh, Professor Sylvan nodded toward the Eevee on the shelf. "He's right there. However, I have an alternate choice right now, if you want."

Anthony shook his head. "Not really. I've already made a list." He set his guitar case down and pulled a piece of yellow note paper from his jacket. "I planned my team carefully, and unless it's on the list, then I'm really not interested."

Sylvan took the paper, and read it over. He held it back to Anthony. "Are you going to even ask what it is?"

"Fine, what is it?"

"It's a Squirtle," I said, stepping into the conversation. "And it's really awesome. You should take it. It would beat an Eevee any day." To this, the Eevee on the shelf snarled at me. _Oh, get over it, you furball._

Anthony looked at me, and then down to Alice. "What's up with him?" He nodded toward my Bulbasaur.

"Alice is a her."

"Oh. Then what's up with her? She's all pink and stuff."

Alice buried her face in my shoulder. I don't think she could take all the attention. Especially from someone who was such a critic. And a jerk, if I do say so myself. "Alice is a Delta Pokemon. She has a different type than normal Bulbasaurs. It also alters her appearance."

Anthony adjusted his glasses, and then shifted his gaze to the Charmander hiding behind Damian's legs. "Well, that explains Bonemander over there." He shoved his hands in his pockets, and then turned toward Squirtle. The Delta Pokemon actually seemed to back down from his stare. "So, this Squirtle isn't a Water-Type, then, right?"

"No," Sylvan said, "it's a Fighting and Dark-Type. A really rare combination."

"I don't know...it would throw my planned team off."

"Look, Delta Pokemon are considered freaks here. If you don't take Squirtle, then nobody probably will. He'll just sit around here all by himself." I decided to leave out the little fact that Alice and Charmander would stay here if Squirtle wasn't taken, mainly for effect. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. "The other Pokemon will make fun of him. He doesn't have many friends."

Anthony stared at me from behind his glasses. The he looked at Damian. His face shifted to an expression that I didn't know all too well. Remembering. "You two truly love Pokemon, don't you?"

"Um...what?"

"Here you are, trying to help a Pokemon that's not even your own, a Pokemon that's considered a freak." Anthony pointed to Alice. "And you both took a freak Pokemon as you own. So I ask again, you two truly love Pokemon, don't you?"

What was he getting at? "Um...yes?" I didn't know if there was a right or wrong answer. So I went with the best option.

"So do I," Damian answered, reaching down and picking up his Charmander. The little Pokemon seemed perfectly comfortable in his new Trainer's arms, even though they had met like five minutes ago. Same with Alice.

We must be doing something right.

Anthony removed his glasses, revealing beautiful hazel eyes, a sharp contrast to his personality. "And if I ask a hundred times, that answer won't change?"

Damian and I exchanged WTF looks. "Um, no?"

A faint smile crossed Anthony's lips, lightening up his whole face. "You know, you two remind me a lot of us. Or how we used to be." He paused, staring off into space. I could tell that he was remembering something. Lucky him. "Professor, I think I'll take the Squirtle. He needs a good home, and I am willing to provide one."

Sylvan nodded, relief sweeping across his face. "That's good to know. What changed your mind? You seemed to have your mind made up on getting an Eevee when you came in here."

"Well, Doc, it's like this," Anthony held his hand out to Squirtle. "A long time ago, I was just like those two. I would've done the same thing they did. I would've been heartbroken if someone didn't take Squirtle. They would be too. I just needed a little reminding, that's all."

Damian and I exchanged another WTF look. "Well, that happened," I commented.

"And now," Anthony went on, "Squirtle and I are going to go train to become the best. That is, if Squirtle will have me, of course."

Squirtle looked Anthony up and down. He didn't seem so sure that this Trainer had changed so dramatically in about a minute. He slowly reached out and touched Anthony's hand. He poked it a few times, why is beyond me, and then shook his new Trainer's hand.

Anthony took Squirtle's Pokeball, and the headed for the door. "Come on, Squirtle, let's go become number one!" The two ran out the door, running straight for greatness. I hope they achieve greatness.

_Speaking of greatness, I need to get some myself, _I told myself. _Well, when you think about it,__ I've escaped from a cultist base, acquired a rare Delta Pokemon, and changed someone's views on Pokemon. That's not bad for two chapters. You go, girl._

There was an awkward silence in the lab in the few seconds after they had left. Sylvan cleared his throat. "Well, that was certainly...interesting.

"Well, he could've at least said thank you," I muttered aloud. "Seems kinda rude to just run off like that." Alice grunted, agreeing with me. At least, I think she was agreeing with me. Maybe she was hungry. I don't know.

Damian seemed to ignore it. He had something more important in his mind. "Well, Alyssa, now that we've both got our Pokemon, I challenge you to a battle!"

* * *

**A/N: First of all, I want to apologize for the longer wait on this chapter. I know I said weekly updates, but there were some unforeseen events. Computer broke. Lost original draft of chapter. Just got computer fixed. Finished second draft. Lots of schoolwork. End of trimester ahead. (Okay, I knew about that one) This chapter might not be as good as the first; I had to cut it in half and I haven't had much of a chance to review and edit it. I'm going to go back and do revisions after a good night's sleep and hopefully some feedback on what could be better.**

**Anyway, I did take reviews into mind when I wrote this chapter, making sure to deviate from the main game some so it would be different. I've added in another character, a guest star from an older series, and I have plans for a more permanent secondary character that I think you all will like. I'm also considering OC submission for some random characters. But don't send me anything until I decide.**

**Also, I'm trying to find some decent picture to use for the cover image, but I can't really get something I like. If there's anyone out there who's good at art and drawing and you want to try, go ahead. If not, I'll think of something.**

**Again, I am sorry about taking so long with this, and it not being as good as it could be. **

**-Sparta.**


	3. Prescott

_Chapter Three: Prescott_

"Are you ready for this, Alyssa?" Damian asked, smirk ever so present on his face. His Charmander was on the ground in front of him, raring to fight.

Alice jumped out of my arms and took up her fighting stance. "I guess we're ready," I replied. I'm pretty sure that now would be a bad time to bring up the fact that I have no experience with Pokemon. At least not that I can remember.

"Okay, here we come!" Damian pointed toward my pink Bulbasaur, and opened his mouth to issue a command, but it never came. He lowered his finger and shrugged. "Ladies first." Oh, what a gentleman.

"You don't know your Pokemon's attacks, do you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. This just became a little easier for me. Well, it would have, if I had known what_ my_ Pokemon's attacks were. "I thought that you were an aspiring Trainer. Shouldn't you know what moves a Pokemon knows?"

Damian folded his arms. "I know what moves a normal Charmander would know. But this is a Delta Charmander."

"Oh, right. Good point."

Professor Sylvan sighed. "Hang on." He pulled out a small, red device from his coat pocket. After aiming it at both Pokemon, he pulled out a notepad and jotted down move names. "These are the moves that your Pokemon know," he said, take the paper and tearing it in half. He gave us each one half, with four moves written on it. "But these will only be temporary. As they grow, your Pokemon will learn new moves and techniques, and will be forced to forget older ones."

I frowned when I read the note.

_Confusion  
Leer  
Fairy Wind  
Tackle_

What? No Flamethrower? That killed my dreams of the ultimate Bulbasaur. "Well, then," I said, looking back up at Damian. "I guess I'll take that first move, then." But, which move? I don't know what any of them are. If I had any memories of them, they were long gone. Eh, Tackle sounds like it'll work. "Alice, use Tackle!"

My Bulbasaur charged at the Charmander, and, well, tackled him. Charmand fell onto his back, but jumped back to his feet, showing no signs of injury. _That didn't seem to work,_ I told myself. _Maybe we should trying something stronger?_

Damian was smiling. There was something that I knew that he didn't. "Alyssa, don't you know that Ghost-Types aren't affected by Normal-Type moves?" Oh...well that explained a lot. "Charmander, use Scratch!"

Charmander slashed his claws at Alice, who jumped back and screeched in pain. "Alice! Are you alright?" I didn't want my very first Pokemon to get really hurt during her first battle. I'll pull her out when I think she's had enough. "Alice, try using Confusion!"

Alice squinted her eyes, focusing as hard as she could. A small pink aura formed around the Charmander, and then slammed into him. Charmander staggered back, but seemed like it hadn't taken a ton of damage. But hey, at least we hit it this time, right?

"Charmander, use Scratch again!" The little bone dragon swiped it's razor sharp claws at my Bulbasaur. Alice yelped quite loudly, loud enough to make even me cringe. She appeared to be having trouble standing up, but she wasn't giving up.

But at this point, I was thinking of throwing in the towel. _She looks pretty badly beaten...Maybe I should pull her out now. I don't want her to get more hurt than she needs to… Damian's Charmander looks perfectly fine. Alice can hardly stand…_

"Um...Confusion?" Screw it. We're not quitters. We're sticking this out until the end.

Alice managed to get to her feet, and formed a weak pink aura around Charmander. When it hit him, it didn't cause as much damage as I had hoped. Charmander was starting to look tired out, but he was still going strong.

Damian smirked. He knew he had this one in the bag. "Charmander, finish it off with another Scratch!"

I sighed as Charmander launched his attack. _At least he's showing some originality there..._

* * *

Well, that could've gone a little better. At least it was my first battle, though. It's perfectly okay to lose your first battle. There's still honor to be found when you haven't won a battle in your life. "I only have a 100% defeat rate," I mumbled to myself, tossing Alice's PokéBall up and down in my hand, on my way to the Pokémon Center. "That pretty much means that I can only go up from here."

The inside of the Pokémon Center was dead silent. There were a few trainers here and there, but no one was saying anything. People seemed to be in a hurry to get out. Those who weren't seemed to be looking quietly at two people off to the side of the room. Both were wearing – oh crap – Darkrai Cultist cloaks.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why they were here.

_Just keep your head down and don't make eye contact,_ I told myself, slowly walking up to the counter. _Just get Alice healed and get out of here. She's my only defense. If those two-_

"Excuse me, miss."

Crap.

I slowly turned around and looked up into the Darkrai hood. I recognized the man under there. He was one of the many grunts that I had seen when I was sneaking through the Cultist base. "Um...yes?" I replied, trying to sound as cool as possible. "Can I help you?"

He cleared his throat. "You might. You see, recently one of our...friends, got lost and wandered away from our hangout. We were hoping you might've seen them around here." Friends? As if I would ever be friends with one of those pyscos.

"I dunno. I might have. I've seen quite a few new people around here recently." That was 100% true. Everyone I saw here in Telnor Town was new. "You wouldn't be able to describe her, would you?" I asked. "You don't know what she looks like, do you?" I added with a smirk. If they hadn't recognized me yet, then they probably had no idea who they were looking for.

"Um...no."

Then I really can't help you." I turned my back to them and walked to the counter. The nurse took Alice's PokéBall. I took a seat and waited. The two Cultists were still here, and still looking at me. "What? I said I couldn't help you?"

"How long have you lived in this town?" asked the same Cultist as before.

"For a while." Two hours was a while, especially to a teenager. "Why?"

The cultist shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. You just seem suspicious to me, kid. I think you know exactly where our friend is, kid." That was true. I know where I am.

"That's not very good grounds for an accusation," I replied, folding my arms. My eyes slowly turned toward the nurse. Jesus Christ, what's taking her so long? I need Alice. "Simply because I seem suspicious? Do you have any actual evidence?"

At this point, most of the other people in the Pokémon Center had already left, leaving me alone with the nurse and the two cultists. That's great. Just great.

The second cultist put his hand on the first's shoulder. "Relax, she doesn't know anything." His voice was very familiar for some reason. Where did I… "If she knew where our guest was, then I'm sure she would've told us. We should just go and let her be."

The first slowly turned around to face him. "Really? I think she knows something, man. After all, she did seem to know that our friend was a _she _without us telling her. How would she know something like that?"

Oh...I think I messed that up there. Come on, nurse. Stop gawking and get my Pokémon healed!

"So?" asked the second cultist, his voice remaining calm and steady. "Surely she just assumed and got it right. People around here know that the Darkrai cult isn't to be messed with, and I'm sure no one would ever dare to go against it."

"You can say that, Jerome, but I think that Miss Persephone would agree with me in this situation."

Oh, Jerome! So that's who it was! I thought it sounded like Jerome. It's nice to see that he's still looking after me, even though I'm not a cultist anymore. Or in that sexy woman's body.

The nurse subtly waved to me, and held up Alice's PokéBall. About time. I motioned to her to throw it to me, and she did. It was a perfect catch. Or it would've been, if I hadn't fumbled it twice before grabbing it. Just having Alice in her Pokéball made me feel much better. If things went south, which they always do, I'll have at least one line of defense. One small, pink, cute line of defense, but still a line of defense.

"Whose side are you on?" shouted the first cultist. In the short seconds that I had been distracted, their conversation had turned into an argument. "This girl right here knows what we need to know! And you just want to let her be? That's not how we roll in the Darkrai Cult!"

_How we roll in the Darkrai Cult? I'm really hoping he didn't actually say that._

Jerome, on the other hand, was still cool and collected. "If our guest was around here, then surely we would've found her by now. She might know something, but she probably doesn't. Let's just leave. There's nothing here." He turned and walked out the door.

The first cultist just stared. "You...you…you..." he was stammering for an insult. "You jerk!" Hm, I don't think that was really effective. "I'm going to report this to Miss Persephone. You're going to get into a whole heap of trouble. Then we'll see who's..." His voice trailed off as he ran after Jerome.

I sighed in relief. That had been close. Too close. I couldn't stay looking like this forever. Sooner or later, someone from the Darkrai Cult would recognize me. I needed to change my appearance. Then I saw the sign for the clothing store down the stairs. Ah ha. Time for a little dress-up…

* * *

An hour and nearly all the money I had found in the backpack later, I walked out a new person. Instead of the drab gray uniform that I had on before, I now wore a nice purple shirt with a rugged pair of blue jeans. And my hair was no longer blonde. I was now a brunette.

I had to stop every time I passed a mirror and look at the stranger looking back at me. She was quite pretty, if I do say so myself.

I went upstairs and used the last of the money I had to purchase some PokéBalls. If these Cultists were going to keep popping up, Alice was going to need some backup. The clerk had been kind enough to give me the basic rundown on how to capture wild Pokémon, but as he spoke I just seemed to know it. Apparently that was one of the things I forgot.

"Okay, Alice, we're ready to go!" I let my freak Bulbasaur out of her Pokémon out of her PokéBall, and we were ready for the road. "Alice, we have the journey of a lifetime in front of us," I said, picking her up. "We've got Trainers to face, Pokémon to catch, and the world to see! This is going to be friggin' awesome!"

* * *

"This friggin' sucks!" The wild Pidgey flew away, leaving me behind in dispair. "That's the third one that's got away. I'm running low on PokéBalls." Less than thirty minutes after departing the Pokémon Center, Alice and I had encountered a few wild Pokémon, and failed to catch any of the three.

"Bulb!" Alice cried, watching the bird fade into the distant sky. She'd been growing stronger with each battle, but since we were in the middle of a vast forest, there really weren't that many trainers around. The one we had challenged refused, and then mocked Alice for being a freak.

So I kicked him in the nuts.

"Okay Alice, it's time for a rest." There was a fallen log in the middle of a small clearing, providing me with a nice, natural chair. "I thought this was going to be a little more fun than it has been," I admitted, as my pink Bulbasaur sniffed around at the grass, apparently looking for a snack. "What about you, Alice? Are you having fun?"

She looked up at me and tilted her head. "Bulb."

"Oh, that's quite interesting. Why do you feel that way?"

"Bulb."

"I see. Really?"

"Bulb?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Bulb."

"Thanks anyway, it was nice for asking."

"Bulb...bulb?"

Okay, so I got a little bored and had a fake conversation with my Pokemon. Can you blame me? We've been wandering around in a forest, completely agitated by the three Pokémon we lost, and we have no idea where we're going. I need to do something to keep me from going insane.

"Have you found anything edible, Alice?"

"Bulb."

"Was that a yes or a no?"

"Bulb."

"One bulb for yes, two for no."

"Bulb bulb."

"Aw..." I was hungry too. "Almost ready to get moving again?"

"Pika!"

"Okay then, let's get...wait, what was that?"

Across the clearing sat a little yellow rodent. It stared at Alice, and she stared back. The two of them had their eyes locked onto the other. Niether moved; they stood a still as rocks.

A Pikachu? I didn't know they lived out here. Okay, so I didn't know what Pokémon lived out here. But I think a Pikachu would make a nice addition to the team. They're lightning fast, pun intended, learn powerful moves, and they're nearly as cute as Alice. Nearly. "Um, Alice? I hate to break up the World Championship Staring Contest...but attack!"

Alice let out the Bulbasaur battle-cry, and launched herself forward. The Pikachu barely had any time to react before the little pink Pokémon knocked it flat on its back. "Pika!" Electricity formed in its cheeks, only to fizzle out. "Pika..."

"Okay, now use Confusion!" We can't let this one get away. This Pikachu looked pretty strong. With it at my side, we'd go all the way. "Hit it hard!"

"Bulba!" Alice jumped off of the Pikachu, and formed the pink aura of doom around it. The Pikachu tried to get up, but the aura struck first.

"Pika!"

"Okay Alice, once more with a Tackle!"

Alice tackled the Pikachu again. The wild rodent tried to form more electricity in it's cheeks, but it just fizzled out in sparks again. Huh. It must be tired from some previous battle. "Alice, get off of it. I'm going to throw a PokéBall now."

My Bulbasaur climbed off of the yellow rodent, who now lay panting on the ground. Or was it crying? I couldn't tell. Doesn't matter, I'm going to catch it now. "Last PokéBall...I have to make it count..." I said a silent prayer to whatever diety would waste their time watching over me, and then threw the ball.

The Pikachu was engulfed in the red light, and sucked into the ball. The ball shook once...twice...thrice…

Click.

"Wait...that actually worked?" I stood in complete surprise. "I thought I was going to fail again..." I ran over to the PokéBall and picked it up. "We did it, Alice! We caught ourselves our first Pokémon!" Alice jumped in triumph. "We are friggin' awesome!"

I tossed the PokéBall up and down a few times, just letting it sink in. This Pokémon was mine. I had caught it. Alice was given to me, but this was my first Pokémon that I felt like I earned. And I smiled. _One small step for Alyssa, one giant leap for...for...for Alyssa-kind?_

"So...what should we name him?"

"Bulb."

"No, I'm not going to name him Bulb," I replied, smirking at my own joke. _Let's see...I named Bulbasaur Alice...but why? Why Alice? Alice...Alice… _Something was coming through the fog. It was still distant, but I felt something there. _Alice...Prescott? _Prescott? Where the hell did that come from?

Alice had just come into my mind when I first used it, and now the name Prescott came to mind. Was it a sign or something? Maybe I had one of those special psychic talents you see on those lame TV shows. "So...I guess I deem this new Pikachu Prescott!"

"Bulb?" Alice looked up at me with questioning eyes. Though I couldn't understand her, I knew what she was thinking. _Prescott? Really? Prescott?_

"Yes. Prescott." I tossed the PokéBall up one more time. "Welcome to the team, Prescott."

* * *

**A/N: I'm back! I know it's much later than a week, and I do apologize. Life gets in the way sometimes and you just can't keep up. I'm going to try my best, but I'm going through a hectic part of my life right now, and I can hardly find a time to write when I want to. That's kinda why this chapter is shorter than the others.**

WaterCloset:** I hope not. I'm doing my best to keep it alive.**

**There's one thing that I want to make clear: If you all ever think that I'm taking too long on a chapter, then let me know. Send me a message or something saying 'Hey dude, you're taking a while on this chapter. What's going on?' or something. Don't be afraid to let me know.**

**Anyway, until next time (which is hopefully soon)**

**Peace out!**


	4. Heroes

**Naruto secret jutsu: **I try to avoid making the main character seem like a Mary-Sue or Gary-Stu (I hope I'm getting those terms right). Losing the first battle is a good way to do that.

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark:** Hey, long time, no see! Insurgence really is a good game; it's a shame that you haven't been able to play it yet. Jerome might be a recurring character. I'll just see how things go. As for the OC's, they'll probably minor characters with a few appearances here and there. It depends on how many submissions I get.

**DarkNightPhoenixFire:** It does seem weird, doesn't it? It's not really a reference to anything, but it does hold significance.

* * *

_Chapter Four: Heroes_

After a quick jaunt back to the Pokémon Center, both Alice and Prescott were healed and I was finally ready to continue onward to the cave where I would find this rare stone to present to this really important guy that I've never met but sounds familiar and might know who I am even though that's a really long shot.

Whew. That was a lot to think in one breath.

The three of us were walking in our standard formation; Alice in my arms while Prescott plodding along behind us. His ears were down and his tail dragged on the ground. I offered to let him ride on my shoulder multiple times, but he shook his head.

"What's wrong, Prescott? Trainer life not cut out for you?"

"Pik..."

Hm. Not sure what that meant. "Here," I set down Alice and held my arms open to him. "Come on, I'll carry you." I figured that would be the best way to bond with a newly caught Pokémon. Show it that I trusted it enough to hold it. Maybe it would shock me, maybe not. But show it that you care about it.

Prescott sniffed my hand, but pulled his head away. "Pika."

"Okay, your loss." Alice gleefully jumped back into my arms. Something tells me that she was rather glad that Prescott didn't take me up on the offer. She liked to be carried...lazy little fu-

"Hey you!" A kid about nine or ten ran up to me. He had on the standard uniform of youngsters in the area; backwards blue cap, t-shirt, shorts. "I challenge you to a battle!" In his hand was a PokéBall that he held up like a trophy. "One-on-one!"

I smirked. This ought to be easy. None of the youngsters around here actually have any decent Pokémon. Just the usual Rattata and Pidgey. "Challenge accepted. Prescott, you're up."

The Pikachu looked up at me. "Pika..." He slowly walked forward, his ears still down and his tail still dragging. There was absolutely no enthusiasm in him. Maybe he didn't like being a trainer's Pokémon. I guess I can kinda understand. I'll have a little talk with him later.

The kid tilted his head, taking in the sight of Prescott. "Your Pikachu seems a little...depressed," he commented, stating the obvious. "What's wrong with it?"

"I don't really know. I caught less than an hour ago."

He shrugged. "Eh, whatever. We're still going to battle!" The youngster tossed his PokéBall and revealed his Pokémon. "Go, Patrat!" A little brown mouse appeared on the field, opposite the side of Prescott.

Yep. Nothing too spectacular. You would think that at least one of the kids around here would actually manage to catch something a little cooler than a bunch of rodents. No offense to Prescott, or anything. "Okay Prescott, hit it with your Thundershock!"

Prescott shook his head sadly. "Pika..."

"Um...okay..." Maybe Prescott didn't know Thundershock yet. That would explain why the electricity just fizzled out when I caught him. "Then use Tackle, maybe?" Please, oh dear God tell me I didn't catch a Pokémon that couldn't fight. That would downright embarrassing.

Prescott's ears perked up. "Pika!" He dropped down on all fours and ran at the Patrat. I mentally sighed in relief. There's still hope yet.

"Patrat, counter with Scratch!" The Patrat jumped to the side as Prescott came charging through. It swiped at my Pikachu with its sharp claws when he was in range.

"Piiii!" Prescott retreated back to my side of the field, and took up a defensive position. His little beady eyes had a fire in them. He wanted to win, and he wasn't going to let anything stop him. For someone who was very depressed just a minute ago, he's certainly raring to go now. I guess I did catch the right Pokémon after all.

Alice squirmed in my arms. "You want in on the action, don't you?" I asked, rubbing her head. She simply mumbled a "bulb" and nodded. But, she would have to wait her turn. "Prescott, try using another Tackle. Hit it this time!"

"Pika!" Prescott slammed into the Patrat, knocking it to the ground. "Pika!" He was standing over the fallen rodent, looking down at it. The Patrat was down, but not out. With a swift swipe, it slashed Prescott across the face.

Both Pokémon were still for several moments. Prescott leaned back and stood on his hind legs, and blinked a few times, before he looked over at me. I could see three red lines across his face. It didn't look pretty.

That's when the pain sunk in.

"Pika!" Prescott started flailing his arms, running around in circles. "Pika pika piii!" His hands went to his face, trying to cover the wound. The claws hadn't broken the skin, so I wasn't too concerned. I know, I know, I'm a bad trainer for that. But I had seen Alice get hit with a fireball when we fought a Vulpix earlier and she walked away fine. Prescott seemed to be overreacting.

The youngster watched in pure amusement as my Pikachu now rolled on the ground, groping his hurting face. "Your Pokémon doesn't seem to handle pain very well," he commented, smirking. His Parat started snickering.

Prescott stopped rolling and glared into the Patrat's eyes, flames ignited in his own. "Pika!" My Pikachu jumped to his feet, his eyebrows creasing inward. "Pika..." electricity began sparking in his cheek pouches, "...chu!"

But...nothing happened. All that came out were a few weak little sparks. Prescott lowered his ears and his tail drooped. "Pika pika..." I guess he still wasn't able to use Thundershock. A little disheartening at the moment, but eventually he'll get the hang of it.

The pathetic fireworks show only threw the Patrat into more hysterics. It dropped to its knees, pointing and laughing. "Patrat, finish it off with another Scratch!"

Prescott didn't even fight back. He stood there with his head down when the claws struck him. "Pika…piii." He fell face-forward to the ground, out cold.

The youngster threw his hands up in celebration. "You did awesome, Patrat!" His Pokémon ran to him and jumped into his arms. "Someday, you and I are going all the way to the Pokémon League!" He looked up at me. "Miss, you're going to need a lot of training before you'll be any good." His Patrat squeaked in agreement. "Come on, Patrat, let's go!" The pair ran off into the woods, leaving me standing with a Delta Bulbasaur in my arms, and an unconscious Pikachu in front of me.

"You're going to need a lot of training before you'll be any good," I sassed to myself. Alice growled grumpily in my arms. "I know. He's a pompous little asshole." I returned Prescott to his PokéBall. "Don't worry, someday we'll show him. We'll get revenge."

So we took a second quick jaunt back to the Telnor Town Pokémon Center. I went to the PokéMart upstairs to see about getting some potions, only to realize that I had spent all my money on the PokéBalls earlier. Lucky for me, the clerk was nice and gave me one as a free sample.

"Okay, now I think we're ready for this," I said, crossing the bridge that lead to the cave. Alice had, for once, jumped out of my arms and walked alongside Prescott, and the two seemed to be having a small conversation.

"Bulba bulb bulb?"

"Pika pika piii."

"Bulba bulb."

"Piii pika."

I felt so left out. The sun was starting to go down, and I guessed it was about 5:30. "Come on, guys. We need to get a move on. I don't want to get stuck in a cave at night. Let's go."

* * *

Alice kept up her pace with her trainer, while Prescott plodded along behind. She looked over her shoulder. "You still haven't told me what's wrong?" she said to him in the language that only Pokémon understood. "I might be able to help."

"I doubt it," Prescott grumbled. "You wouldn't understand."

"I might. You wouldn't know unless you tell me."

Prescott kicked a pebble on the ground.

"Does it have something to do with you not being able to fire off a Thundershock?"

"Hmph."

"Ah, so that's it." Alice really didn't have to ask. Her Pyschic-typing gave her a limited telepathic ability. She couldn't fully read people or Pokémon's minds, but she was able to pick out words and sounds. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll learn to do it in time."

"No," replied Prescott, avoiding eye contact. "No I won't."

"Oh come on, show some confidence," Alice said. "Alyssa's a great trainer..." Then she considered the fact that Alyssa hadn't actually won any battles. "Well, she's got a good heart. I'm sure that she'll help you learn Thundershock."

"I doubt it."

Alice sighed. She was trying to be helpful, but he just kept shutting her out. Her limited ESP wasn't helping. The only words she was picking up on were _can't, Thundershock, _and _impossible__. _Not really a sunshiny outlook type of guy. She could feel that he was troubled, but she couldn't pick up on all the details.

"Look, if you just want to talk some time, I'm always here, okay?" Alice asked, giving him a great big Bulbasaur smile. She knew that Prescott had troubles, but she couldn't figure out what they were. She would pick up on small details, but not enough to form a big picture. She felt the loneliness, the fear, the anger, the hate churning inside of him, each one trying to come out on top. But she didn't know why he was lonely, why he was scared, why he was mad, nor who his hated was aimed at. "I'm very easy to talk to, and I don't judge. Trust me, I've been a victim of judgment my whole life."

Prescott didn't respond immediately. His eyes were still plastered to the ground. "...okay," he said finally, in a voice that could barely be heard.

Alice nodded. Prescott might not want to share his problems with her, but she had made a small dent in his mental armor. If she was able to make a hole in it, then she might be able to help the poor Pikachu with his problems. But, she was content at the time that she was making progress.

* * *

"You know, for a cave, this place gets a lot of natural light," I commented to myself, mostly just to keep me from freaking out. Seriously though, we had been walking in the cave for fifteen minutes, and I was still able to see. There were a few floodlights here and there, but they were off.

Also, I remembered a new thing shortly after we entered the cave. I hate caves. They're dark and they're cold and I keep feeling that there's going to be a cave-in. If it hadn't been for my Pokémon urging me on, I think I would've left a long time ago.

Alice kept tugging me along by the leg of my jeans, while Prescott would watch and occasionally offer a monotonous "pika!"

"Damian has to be around here somewhere." This cave wasn't that big, was it? I was sure by now that we had been through most of the cave. There were even a few parts that we'd been by twice. There couldn't be much more left, could there? If I hope not. It's getting dark outside and my feet hurt and I want to take a nap and I'm-

"Alssya?"

I whirled around. Damian was standing behind me, next to a large body of water. "Alyssa, is that you? You look so much different." His eyes were on my hair. "You're no longer a blonde. Did you dye your hair?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I just thought it was time to change my look is all." I decided to leave out the part where I was nearly re-captured by the Cultists. What he doesn't know can't hurt him, right? "So, where are these stones you were talking about? I see a lot of rocks, but nothing out of the ordinary."

Damian still had his eyes on my now-brunette hair. "I had a bunch of blonde jokes, but now they're not going to be funny..." He snapped back to reality, and pointed across the water. "They're over there. Some friends and I found them when we went swimming, but that was ages ago. Before everyone left."

"Okay, so do we just swim across, or is there some other way to get to them?" I didn't want to get wet. I hated getting wet. I'm worse than a Meowth when it comes to water. I only remembered this just now, as I looked into the nearly clear water. It looked pretty deep, and I could see something moving around down there. A Pokémon perhaps?

"Swimming is pretty much the only chance we have of getting to them," said Damian. "We don't have any water Pokémon. I'll get them if you want to stay here and watch Charmander." He kicked off his shoes and started taking off his shirt when he stopped. "Do you hear something?"

I stopped thinking whatever meaningless though I was thinking and listened. But I didn't hear anything. Water dripping into the lake, the occasional cry from a Pokémon far away in the cave, and the faint crackle of the flame on Charmander's tail was all I heard. "I don't-"

Damian pressed a finger to his lips. "Come on," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into a dark crevice. "Don't move or say anything."

"What are-"

Then I heard the voices. "...and they have all these great stories about him. None of the can even be close to the truth."

"Tell me about it. Did you hear the one about how he rode Xerneas as a steed? Friggin' Xerneas! I mean come on, who would believe that?"

Two men dressed in strange uniforms walked into view, and stopped where Damian and I had been standing mere moments ago. One was dressed in a red cloak that was similar to the Darkrai cultists, but the hood was shaped to resemble some other Pokémon I've never heard of. The other wore a blue form-fitting wetsuit type of uniform with red highlights. Again, probably representing a Pokémon.

"Cultists," Damian whispered into my ear.

That threw me into a little bit of a panic. I've not exactly had the greatest history with cults, as you may know, and here I was less than ten feet away from two of them. I've been a lot closer to a lot more before, but I had Mew and that nice Jerome guy to keep an eye out for me. Here, I just had Damian. No offense to him, but I'd pick Mew over him.

"I'm just glad we'll be rid of him soon," said the blue cultist. "He's always been getting in our way, messing up our plans, trying to get rid of us. It's going to be nice to have him out of the way."

"Yeah, I know." The red one reached into his cloak and pulled out – oh God – a gun. "This little baby right here will be the weapon that kills the legendary Augur. It'll show all of Torren that the Augur isn't immortal, but he's just a person like the rest of us. He might live like a god, but he'll die like a man."

"Amen to that," replied the blue cultist. "It's too bad that people love their dear Augur too much to realize that we're actually doing them a favor." He looked down at his wrist. "It's almost time. We should get moving."

"Affirmative." The red cultist tucked his weapon into his cloak and the two left. There were several seconds of silence.

Damian's hand flew to his mouth. "They want...they want to kill the Augur?" His eyes were wide open and behind his hand his jaw hung low. "We...we…have to stop them!" He ran out of the crevice, recalling his Charmander as he went. "Come on! There's no time to waste!"

"Damian!" I ran after him, Alice and Prescott on my heels. "They're cultists!" I was trying to keep my voice down as best I could. If the cultists could hear us, then we'd be screwed. "We don't know how to deal with them!"

But Damian was already out of sight. "Great. He's going to get himself killed, just like his mother said." Well, there was really only one way to go. Back to Telnor. "Come on Alice, Prescott. It looks like we're needed to save the day." _If_ we can save the day.

* * *

When I got back into town, the first thing I noticed was that there was no urgency in any of the people's faces. Those that were out were calmly going about their business. Okay, so it looks like the plot to kill the Augur either hasn't come to light, or Damian already put an end to it.

I looked over to the town hall. Though the window, I could see a mob of people. Damian was there. He looked like he was pushing his way through them, trying to reach the center. "Okay, so it probably hasn't come to light then."

I stopped before I entered. The cultists we'd seen were armed. They had a gun. I didn't. If I were to reveal the assassination scheme, then they might put me in their cross hairs as well. I don't want to die. I don't want this Augur to die. Just let Damian take care of it. He's-Damian! He's already in there. In the line of fire. He could get himself killed! Or worse! Oh, screw it. I'm going in.

Bursting through the door, I saw that Damian had already made it up to the man sitting in the middle of the room. But, the man was talking to someone else, despite Damian's best attempts to get his attention.

Okay, try to pick out the possible killers. Shouldn't be too hard. They're wearing red and blue uniforms. No, those would've been too obvious. They've probably changed into something more casual. But what? Look for someone suspicious. Someone out of place. Someone like...those two guys in the corner…

It was the same two people that Damian and I had run into when we left for the cave. The two that had been completely rude. They were standing side-by-side against the back wall, watching the scene before them. Neither of them seemed fazed by the Augur. Like the two Cultists in the cave. It wasn't much to go on, but it was something.

The room suddenly got dead silent. "Well, that's a very serious accusation, Damian," said the man in the middle of the room. "Do you have any evidence?"

"Yes, I was out-"

The Mayor cut him off. "My apologies for this child, sir. He's always making stuff up, but I never thought he would take it this far." He walked over to Damian and grabbed him by the shoulder. "What are you doing? These lies are embarrassing the whole town in front of the Augur!"

"I wouldn't worry about getting embarrassed," said one of the two men in the back. "That kid's telling the truth. There are people here that will try to kill you."

All eyes shifted towards them. "I see. And who are you?" asked the Mayor, loosening his grip on Damian.

"Well, we're cultists. And that kid was telling the truth. We're here to kill the Augur."

"No!" Damian shouted jumping onto a nearby table. "You can't kill the Augur! He's the greatest trainer on the face of the planet!" He jumped off the table in between the cultists and the Augur. "You won't even get the chance to face him. Alyssa and I will beat you right here and now!"

"We will? I mean, we will." I went to Damian's side, and stood ready to fight the cultists. I wasn't really all that scared anymore. There were more than enough people here. If something went wrong, one of them would probable do something. I even saw a few people sneaking out and running toward the police station. Plus, the Augur was supposedly the strongest trainer in the world. Surely he could take care of them.

"Alyssa?" The Augur raised an eyebrow, looking at me. "Your name is Alyssa?"

"Um...yeah."

"Hm." His eyes dug into my soul. "That's very interesting..."

"That's great and all, but there's something a little more important at the moment," Damian said, pulling out Charmander's PokéBall. "We're going to take these cultists out!"

The cultist that I faced laughed. "I'd like to see you try. It's always the kids that try to play hero. They sit around watching TV all day, and then they think that they can take on the world."

"They don't seem to get it," said the other. "We're cultists. We have both superior Pokémon and actual weapons." He opened his jacket and revealed the pistol. "Now if you two would just get out of the way, we'll leave you alone. It's just the Augur we want."

Damian was shaking. I was too, but only on the inside. I want to back down, but I don't think Damian will. I can't simply abandon friends in the time of need, right? If Damian stands up to them, then I will too. They don't really look that tough…

"No..." Damian said finally, balling his fists and taking a stand. "I'm not backing down. We can stop you. We _will _stop you from killing the Augur."

The first Cultist shook his head. "That's too bad. Just remember, we offered you a way out, but you're going to get what's coming to you." He pulled out a PokéBall as Damian released Charmander. And their battle began.

The cultist before me took out his own PokéBall. "Looks like it's you and me. Prepare to get crushed! Go Skrelp!" A little water Pokémon appeared, prepared to fight.

"Prescott, you're up first!" My Pikachu slowly walked into the battle. He didn't seem depressed anymore. He seemed neutral. No smile on his face, and barely the spark of life in his eyes. Does he have mood swings or something? "Can you try a Thundershock?"

He shook his head.

"No? Okay, then. Quick Attack!" Prescott charged the Skrelp at lightning fast speed, slamming into it before it had a chance to react. It was knocked to the ground, while my Pikachu returned to my side. "Nice job. Looks like you really did some damage."

The cultist smirked. "Oh come on, now. You'll have to do better than that. Skrelp, use Water Gun!" The little kelp Pokémon got back up and fired a stream of water at Prescott. But he jumped to the side just in time, and the water harmlessly splashed on the ground."

Then I smirked. "Oh come on," I taunted. "You'll have to do better than that." Oh no, here I go taunting a cultist. I'm sure people have been killed for less. "Prescott, hit it with another Quick Attack!"

Once again, the Skrelp was knocked onto its back, but it got back up. Prescott was breathing heavily. But why? He hasn't been battling for long, and he hasn't taken a hit yet. Okay, maybe we should switch out to Alice for now…

"Water Gun!" Another stream of water flew from the Skrelp's mouth. Prescott looked up just in time to get nailed directly in the face.

"Pika!" He went down hard, knocked to the floor from the attack. He was down and out. "Pika piii..."

Okay, so that didn't go as well as I had planned. I recalled Prescott and Alice ran out onto the floor. "It's payback time, Alice! Start off with a Confusion!" The pink Bulbasaur's eyes glowed purple, and a purple aura formed around the Skrelp. A few seconds later, the water Pokémon cried out in pain as the aura inflicted damage. It fell face-forward to the ground, out cold.

The cultists smirk was long gone. "Hmph. That was impressive." He recalled the Skrelp and pulled out a second PokéBall. "But you won't do so well against this one. Go Horsea!" A blue seahorse similar to the Skrelp appeared on the field.

"Alice, try using your Fairy Wind attack!" I know it sounded a little too cute to be an attack, but I was kinda curious to see how strong it was. Alice's eyes glowed pink, and what can only be described as a pink breeze blew from behind her, straight at the Horsea.

The seahorse took the attack pretty well, wearing down a little but still able to fight. "Use Water Gun!" the cultist ordered. The Horsea fired the water at Alice, hitting her in the side. She shook it off and prepared for her next attack.

"Confusion!"

The purple aura slammed into Horsea, forcing it to the ground. It withered in pain for several seconds, and then was still. The cultist stared at it for several seconds before recalling it. "Impossible..."

The cultist Damian was fighting recalled his own fainted Pokémon. "Ugh, you may have beaten us in battle, but we'll still kill you where you stand." His hand went into his jacket. "This should teach you not to mess with the cults!"

The Augur stepped forward, between Damian and I and the cultists. "I wouldn't recommend doing that," he said cooling, clasping his hands behind his back. "First you try to kill me, then you threatened to kill two kids if they lost a battle, and then, when they beat you, you still try to kill them." He shook his head sadly. "That's strike three."

The cultist scoffed. "So what. We're here to kill you and that's what we're going to do." He pulled the pistol out and aimed it at the Augur. "Prepare yourself." The cultist squeezed the trigger.

Click.

There was a long pause. "What the hell?" The cultist pulled the trigger again and again, all to the same results. "I swear I loaded this thing." He pulled the magazine out and checked it. It was fully loaded.

The Augur had a smirk on his face. "Did you two really think that killing me would be that easy?" He lowered his head. "Take my advice; know thine enemy. That's how I've been dealing with the cults. I don't just run in blindly. It takes some planning." He looked back up. "The both of you will await trails in Helios City. Don't expect to get off easy. Attempting to assassinate the Augur is about the worst you can do.

"Vinculorum mortae!" The Augur shouted. Isn't that what that cultist lady said? No, it wasn't that exactly, but it was something similar. Hm. That's interesting.

There was a flash of light, and both of the cultist were gone. "Well, that takes care of that."

"Did...did you just kill them?"

The Augur laughed. "No, young Damian. I simply transferred them to Helios City. They'll await a trial there, though things don't really look all that well for them.

"Oh."

"I'm still surprised that I actually managed to win for once," I said, picking up Alice. "I've not exactly had the best training record so far."

The Augur smiled and nodded slowly. "I see. I wouldn't have worried, though. I wouldn't have let either of you get hurt should something had gone wrong. But, you proved to me that you were both talented and responsible."

Damian's eyes lit up. "Responsible?"

"Yes, responsible. Damian and...and Alyssa," the Augur said, "you both showed great amounts of courage and selflessness. You risked your life to protect mine." Even though he was talking to both of us, I got the feeling he was aiming it more towards Damian. "You should be proud of yourselves. When you get to Helios City, please to stop by and see me. I would love to see the two of you again."

"Oh, we will," Damian replied eagerly. "I'm looking forward to it."

The Augur walked towards the door. "So am I, Damian. So am I."

Huh. That wasn't weird. Not weird at all.

There was another dead silence in the aftermath of the event. "So...the Augur thinks you're responsible," said the Mayor. "I don't think your foster mother would argue with the Augur. I guess that means you're going out on an adventure. You got an official invitation from the Augur. You can't turn that down!"

Damian burst into a huge smile. "Alright! Come on Charmander! We have to get moving. All my old friends are probably already in Midna Town by now." When he opened the door, he stopped. "Oh, I guess I should probably wait until tomorrow...It's dark out."

"Indeed," the Mayor agreed. "There's always tomorrow for an adventure. Besides, you need to rest up before traveling to Midna Town. You've been through quite the ordeal today."

"I guess you're right," Damian said. "Okay, then. Alyssa, tomorrow we're going to race to Midna Town! It's just on the other side of the cave we were in today. They've got a Trainer School there, so we can learn a lot more about Pokémon!" He waved as he ran out the door. "Good night!"

The Mayor shook his head, but with a smile. "That boy always was energetic." The old man turned to me. "Do you have a place to stay for the night, Allison? I'm sure that the Pokémon Center has some rooms available."

Just the thought of sleep could put me to sleep. I haven't actually slept since...since I woke up this morning in a bed with a Gengar hovering over to me. "I could use a nice soft bed," I said. Preferably not one with large purple ghost Pokémon next to it. "I really need a good night's rest." I don't think anything would make my day better than a nice long nap.

"Oh, before you leave, take these." The Mayor handed me a grocery bag.

"What is it?"

"It's the leftover brownies. You said to save some for you, didn't you?"

And just like that, the Mayor became my favorite person in Telnor Town.

* * *

**Jeebus. That took me longer than I had expected. But at least I got this one done in a shorter time than the last chapter.**

**Anyway, I tried something a little different with this chapter, having the Pokémon converse with each other. Not sure if you all like it, I'm just doing some experimentation with it.**

**I don't really have anything else to say for now, so…**

**Peace out!**


	5. Dreams

**OceanRuins: **Glad to see that you're sticking around for a while! I tried to think of something more to say in reply to your review, but I couldn't think of a way to put it without giving something away.

**Antex – The Legendary Zoroark:** Yeah, the Pokémon conversing scene came from leftover inspiration from my older stories. As for OC's, see note at bottom.

**DarkNightPhoenixFire:**I also like Prescott's character. I think that this is the first time I've done a character with his personality, and it appears that I'm doing it well.

_Chapter Five: Dreams_

_I smiled as Alice and Prescott and I walked along the route. It was a warm summer evening, with a fresh breeze caressing us and the chirping of the bird Pokémon. I think there was even some accompanying guitar music._

_All three of us were happy, not a care in the world. Even Prescott was smiling. It was perfect. Life was perfect. Nothing could get better. _

_Then two figures stepped onto the path. Both were dark silhouettes. I couldn't make out any details. They wore strange clothing that looked very familiar. Then they stepped into the light. I gasped. It was the cultists._

_Both cultists appeared to be laughing, but there was no sound. The one on the right reached into his jacket and pulled out – oh God – the pistol. He said something as he aimed the pistol at me, but I didn't hear a sound come from his mouth._

_Then there was a bang._

_Time seemed to slow to a crawl. I saw the bullet from the gun coming straight at me. I tried to move but I could. Even Alice and Prescott seemed stuck in place. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited, not knowing what to expect._

_Several moments passed, but nothing happened. I cracked my eyes open slowly, and saw that a third figure had appeared in front of me. He wore a dark cloak with a white hood – the uniform of the Darkrai Cult – and had his arms spread from side to side. He was blocking the way of the bullet._

"_Alyssa!" A girl was standing off to the side of the path. "Alyssa, follow me." She took off into the forest. I started after her._

_Her hair was long and golden, and she had sapphire blue eyes. She kept walking and walking, and I kept following and following. It seemed like an eternity had passed before we finally reached a clearing in the forest. The entrance to a cave sat in the middle of the clearing. It looked damaged. The entrance was crumbling, and there was fallen rocks all around it._

"_Who are you?" I asked._

"_A friend."_

"_Do...do you have a name?"_

"_Yes."_

"_...well, what is it?"_

"_You already know it."_

"_I don't, actually."_

_She smiled. "You know what it is, but you don't know what it is."_

_Oh great, she was one of _those_ kind of people. "Okay, then forget it. I'm not in the mood to bother with it." I nodded toward the cave. "Why did you bring me here?"_

"_This is the place you've been looking for."_

"_Place I've been looking for?" I don't recall looking for a cave. "Why am I looking for a cave?" I hate caves._

_She smiled again. "You know why, but you don't know why."_

_Dear God in Heaven. "Can you tell me?"_

"_No, because I don't know."_

_Oh come on. What the hell? "This is getting on my nerves."_

"_Just go in. You'll see once you're inside."_

_I looked from her to the dark cave. I hate caves. I liked it better when I was just walking along with Alice and Prescott. Wait, where were they? They're not here. Did I leave them behind?_

"_Alyssa, your Pokémon are fine. Please enter the cave," said the girl, her smile fading._

"_But...wait. You're my benefactor, aren't you?" I said, recalling my escape from the Darkrai Cult. "You're the one that sent Mew and left those notes, right?"_

_Her smiled returned. "I don't know. I don't know because you don't know."_

_I sighed. Should've seen that one coming a mile away. "Well, this has been educational. I can't wait to see what awaits me in this dank dark cave." I stepped into the darkness…_

* * *

...and then was blinded by light.

"Mmphf." I sat up in the bed, rubbing my eyes. "Wha..."

Prescott was standing on the table next to the door, with his hand on the light switch. "Pika!" He had a smile that stretched from cheek to cheek. "Pika pika pii!"

"Prescott...do you know what time it is?" I rolled over in bed and looked at the clock. Wow, it was that early? "It's 1:17 in the morning. Turn the light off and go back to sleep." I pulled the covers over my head. I deserved sleep. Yesterday was a big day.

My Pikachu huffed. "Pika pika!" He flicked the lights off and ran to the window, where he jumped on the string that pulled the blinds up, filling the room with sunlight. "Pika piii!"

"Give it a rest, Prescott. It's the middle of the night." I cracked open my eyes. Why would there be sunlight at one in the morning? I turned to the clock. "Oh, it's 1:17 _pm_. That explains a lot." Great, this meant that I had to get up and do stuff now. Ugh.

When I went to start my morning routine, I realized that I was horribly under-equipped. I didn't have a toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, and I only had one change of clothes. And the worst part was that I didn't have any money to buy these things.

So I after taking a quick shower, I combed my hair down with my hands, brushed my teeth with a washcloth – yes, it's possible to do that – and put on the old gray and orange jumpsuit that I had worn when I woke up. It wasn't exactly clean, but they smelled better than my newer clothes.

"Okay, guys," I said, pulling my backpack on. "Let's make today a good day!" After all, Damian and I were racing to this Midna Town. And it looks like I was off to a bad start. "Or at least what we have left of it!"

* * *

About a half-hour later, we checked out of the Pokémon Center. Turns out that they had free breakfast for the trainers rooming there. So we ate some, and secretly packed away several pancakes for later. When you don't have any money, you've got to be thrifty. Take every opportunity you get.

It wasn't until we were out on the road towards the cave that I got a chance to think about my strange dream. What the heck was going on in my head? Who was that stranger girl? She seemed familiar, but I couldn't place her. As if that was a surprise.

And that cave. She wanted me to go into that cave. She said that's the place I was looking for. But I'm not looking for a cave. I hate caves. I never got to see what was in the cave, so there still could be something in it…

It was about at this point that we reached the Telnor Cave. I knew where to go this time, and easily navigated through it. I took a glimpse of the rare stones as we passed, but I wasn't going to bother trying to get them. My mind slipped away from the dream as we stepped out of the cave and into Route 1.

"Okay, guys," I said, taking in the view. The Route was rather green, with several trees and large patches of tall grass here and there. Trainers were everywhere. Some were battling, and others were searching for a new Pokémon. A few were just sitting around and relaxing, waiting for a battle. "Let's get busy and do a little bit of training before we hit Midna Town."

"Bulba!"

"Pika!"

We headed over to a group of trainers that had gathered to watch a battle. Surely we could find someone to battle over here. My eyes darted over the small crowd, trying to pick someone that I would find a suitable opponent. Most of them seemed to have the usual Pokémon at their sides, Patrats, Poochyenas, Rattatas, and the like.

"Squirtle, Bite!" one of the battlers ordered. I recognized his voice.

"Is that...that Anthony guy?" I asked myself, squeezing into the crowd so I could see the battle. Sure enough, the blonde guy with the leather jacket was standing on one side, while a kid roughly twelve stood on the other. Delta Squirtle was facing a what appeared to be a fire horse.

"Ponyta, Ember!"the trainer ordered. The horse reared back, and fired a small spray of smoldering embers at the Delta.

"Withdraw!" Squirtle ducked back into his shell. The embers hit the hard shell and left a few small scorch marks, but the Pokémon inside was completely unharmed. "Very good, Squirtle," Anthony praised, before issuing his next command. "Bite again!"

Squirtle opened his mouth wide, and ran at the much larger Ponyta. "Stomp!" the Pontya's trainer shouted, and his Pokémon complied. It raised its hoof as Squirtle came closer, and then slammed it down.

But Squirtle had dodged to the side. He jumped up and sunk his teeth into the Ponyta's neck. Ooh, that looked like it hurt. Pontya screamed out in pain, and Squirtle pulled himself up on top of the horse. He jumped into the air. "Squir..." He put his hands together and raised them over his head. "...tle!" He slammed his fists down onto Ponyta's head knocking the horse to the ground.

"Damn," muttered a voice in the crowd. "That was impressive." I'll have to agree there. That was pretty awesome.

Ponyta struggled to its feet. Its legs were wobbly and it was having a hard time keeping on balance. Then its legs slipped out from under it, and it came crashing down. The trainer growled, returning his fallen Pokémon.

"Nice job Squirte," Anthony said, holding his hand up. Squirtle jumped up and gave him an epic high-five. "You've been winning left and right." Squritle smiled. And I smiled. The first time I ever saw Anthony, I thought he was some jerk. But now it looks like he's a really good trainer.

"...it's not fair," the Ponyta's trainer said. "I call hack! You cheated!" he yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at Anthony. "There's no other way a freak could beat my well-trained Ponyta!"

Anthony stayed calm. "Would you prefer it if I had used my normal Squirtle?" He held up his second PokéBall. "Or would you say that I cheated because I had the type advantage?"

The other trainer scowled, and was about to start into another rant when a girl walked by and grabbed his arm. She kept on walking, dragging the boy along with her. "If you would stop being a sore loser, more people would like you," she said as they disappeared into the distance.

After a few seconds, the crowd dispersed, but I stayed. It was just me and Anthony. "You did pretty well," I said, catching his attention. "You really are a good battler."

Anthony shrugged. "Eh, well, I've had a lot of previous experience." He looked me over. "You're that girl from the lab, right?" he asked. "You've got the same clothes and the same Bulbasaur, but your hair is a different color."

"Yeah," I brushed a stray strand of non-naturally colored hair out of my face. "I just thought it would it be smart to look a little different from then. You know, change my appearance."

He stared at me for a moment. "If you were a guy, I'd be a little suspicious," the teen admitted. "But I've know girls that have to change their appearance, outfit and everything, about five times a day." He looked down. "Who's this little fella? I don't remember him."

"Oh, that's Prescott. I caught him yesterday." Prescott was standing by me leg, with his arms crossed and a dull face. Anthony reached out to pet him, but the Pikachu smacked his hand away.

"He seems happy."

"Yeah, that's the usual Prescott for you," I said, reaching down and stroking him behind the ears. He didn't smack my hand away, but he showed no signs of a better attitude. "He was really happy this morning. I don't know what happened."

Anthony frowned and rose to his feet. "Have you tried taking him to a Pokémon Center?"

"A few times after battles. It hasn't changed his attitude yet."

"No, I mean take him in for a check-up," Anthony clarified. "Just having them healed at the Pokémon Center only recovers them physically. Sometimes, you have to go in depth to solve some of the other problems. He might have a disorder."

A disorder? I don't see how a disorder would cause him to be so depressed...unless...click. It was a disorder that prevented him from using Thundershock. Being an Electric-Type Pokémon and not being able to form electricity would make me depressed as well. "I guess I'll have him looked at when we get to Midna Town," I replied.

Anthony nodded. "Wise move." He paused and scratched the back of his neck. "Um...I was heading to heal up my Pokémon. There's a nurse set up next to a pond nearby...you wanna come along?"

"Oh, no," I answered. "We're good. We've only been up against a few wild Zubat and Geodude in the cave."

"Oh...okay." The teen started walking away, then spun on his heel. "I heard that there's a hidden grotto that a really strong Pokémon lives in somewhere around here. You wanna help me look for it? I'm going to try to catch it."

Was it just me, or was he acting a little...different. "Um...I guess I could." Damian probably already beat me to Midna Town, so why not take a little detour. "Under one condition. I get to catch that strong Pokémon."

Anthony smiled. "Heh. We'll see about that. Come on, it's this way." He started leading me through the forest, when he suddenly froze. "You know, I don't think I never caught your name."

"I'm pretty sure you did somewhere," I replied. "But it's Alyssa in case I'm wrong."

"Well, it's nice to formally meet you, Alyssa."

* * *

He led me to a large clearing the in the woods where there was a large pond. Several trainers were hanging around, but none of them really looked up for a battle. Someone was playing with the Poochyena, while a random Bidoof roamed around. A nurse was set up with some medical equipment, taking care of some poor boy's Rattata.

"Here, watch these for me, will ya?" he asked, shrugging off his backpack and setting his guitar case on the ground next to it. "I'm going to go heal up my Squirtles, and every time I'm over there the nurse tries to get me to play her some music."

"Um...okay. I don't see how that's a problem."

"I don't know any music."

"That would be a problem."

"That's why I brought it with me. To learn on the road. Your Pokémon okay?"

"I said they were fine fifteen minutes ago," I reminded him. Alice was in my arms, dozing off, while Prescott was at my feet, scratching behind his ears. "We haven't been in a battle all day."

Anthony nodded as he turned and left. "Alright, I'll be back."

Once he had gone a considerable distance, I sat down on a conveniently place stump. Alice was asleep in my arms, while Prescott was poking around in the general area. "Don't wander off too far, Prescott," I told him. "I don't want you to get into any trouble."

He huffed and me, and then sniffed Anthony's guitar case. "Pika?" Prescott examined it, gently reaching out and touching it. "Pika pii?"

"It's a guitar case," I explained. "They hold guitars." I set down the sleeping Alice. "Hang on, I'll show you." I undid the latches on the side, and slowly opened the lid. Inside the case was a beautiful instrument. The body and neck were solid black, matching the rest of Anthony's clothing. I let out a low whistle. I don't know how I knew, but I knew it was expensive.

Prescott reached out and experimentally plucked one of the strings. A sharp, acoustic twang echoed out over the clearing. My Pikachu cocked his head and plucked the string again, and then again. The he moved down to the next string, and then the next. "Pika." Prescott shrugged. Not impressed.

As I closed the lid, a small triangle of white caught my eye. Something was tucked into the case's compartment. "What's this?" Probably not something important, but I'm nosy. I pulled it out. It was a picture.

In the picture, there were three people. I recognized one of them as a younger version of Anthony, maybe thirteen? He was wearing a white and orange striped shirt opposed to his leather jacket of today. The person in the middle was a guy also about thirteen, with red hair and calm green eyes. There was a faint scar on his cheek. He wore a blue jacket and blue jeans. The third person was a girl, same age as the other two. She had dark navy hair with a white beanie on her head. Her jacket was similar to the second boy's, but it was red.

The red-haired kid was in the middle, with his arms around each of the other two, pulling them in towards him. All three were smiling, and the girl was giving the peace sign, or whatever it's supposed to mean.

"These must be some of Anthony's old friends," I muttered, flipping the picture over. There weren't any names written on the back. "Oh well, I could ask him about it later." I stuck the picture back into the compartment and closed the case.

Then I stopped. Why was I so concerned about Anthony's past? I think I should be a little more concerned about my own. Specifically, finding out what it is.

"Pika..." Prescott was on all fours, tail straight up in the air. His eyes were locked on something in the forest. "Pika pika."

"What is it?" I peered into the forest, but it was too thick to make anything - wait, there it is. Holy hell, that's a big Pokémon. Well, at least compared to Prescott and Alice. It looked about four feet tall. "Is that the Pokémon that Anthony was talking about? From the hidden grotto?"

Alice opened her eyes, and immediately turned toward the Pokémon. I guess that's a quirk of being a Psychic-Type. The ability to sense danger while napping. Seems pretty useful. She took up a defensive stance alongside Prescott.

"Are you two up for a battle?" I asked, pulling out an empty Pokéball. I don't know what this Pokémon was, but it looked strong and I know I wanted it. "Okay, guys. Let's get ourselves a new team member."

* * *

**Okay, shorter chapter this time. It was meant to be longer, but I'm about to get into a really stressful point in my life at the moment *cough*finals*cough* and I wanted to get something out in case I couldn't later.**

**Anyway, on to more important stuff.**

**Another reason this chapter was a little late was I recently got the program that was used to make the Insurgence fan-game, and I started making my own Pokémon game. I'm three weeks in, and I haven't even finished the first town. Motherfu-**

**As for OC submissions, they're open now. I don't expect to get more than three, but I've been wrong before. There's a bit of a battle scene coming up – maybe next chapter – in which I need a few characters. I have some plans for them after that, as well. If you want to submit an OC, I need the following: Name. Gender. Age (preferably 10-14). Description. Personality. Short History. And something interesting/different about them.**

**I've said too much for now. Until next time.**

**Peace out!**


	6. Schooled

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark:** Why thank you. I do try hard to make amazing chapters. You'll find out what Pokémon pretty early on in this chapter. Probably not as cool or awesome as you expected, though.

**OceanRuins:**No trouble at all. I want people to ask the pondering questions. I might not be able to answer them immediately, though. When I respond to people's reviews, I like to put something meaningful instead of just the trite "thanks for the review" and such. I probably could've said something more about the brownie part (which was a crowd favorite).

* * *

_Chapter Six: Schooled_

Beep.

My head hurt. My arms hurt. My stomach hurts. My...I hurt. "Errgh." I was in some form of bed. My eyes wouldn't open for some reason. I think there's something on my head. Was I still at the Pokémon Center? Did I dream all of that with Anthony and that Pokémon?

Beep.

And what's that? I hear beeping? Is that a heart rate monitor? Am I in a hospital? That would make some sense. I guess. That's where most people wake when the have no idea what's going on or how the got there.

Beep.

I smell smoke? Why is there smoke? Is there a fire?

Beep.

This all seems familiar. It's kinda like the time that I woke up in the Cult of Darkrai's cave...wait. I'm not back at the cult, am I? Oh God, they didn't catch me again? That Pokémon I saw...was it Darkrai? Did they use it against me? No...Darkrai looked different. I remember that. I saw it. It left before they could control it.

Beep.

What is that? Why can't I see? I put my hands on my face, but there's something covering my eyes...it's something made out of cloth...a bandage? Am I blind now? What in the hell is going on?

I dug my fingers under the edge of the cloth, and was about to pull it off when hands grabbed my wrists. "Calm down, little lady," said a gruff old voice. "Don't take the bandage off yet. We don't know if you're all healed up yet."

Healed up? So I was in a hospital. I guess I was right about the beeping. Something had happened. What? The last thing I remembered was going after that Pokémon in the woods...maybe it was too strong…maybe Alice and Prescott couldn't take it on...maybe-Alice! Prescott! "Where are my Pokémon? Where's Alice? Where's Prescott? Are they okay?"

"Your Pikachu's doing just fine," said a sharp female voice from behind me. "He's in rough shape, but he should make a complete recovery in no time at all." She sounded a little too cheery, if you ask me. But then again, I just woke up completely clueless for the second time in two days. A psychopath would sound cheery to me.

"But what about Alice? My Bulbasaur?"

There was a long pause. Neither voice said anything.

"She's dead, isn't she? Alice is dead and it's all my fault!" Tears formed in my eyes. I expected them to roll down my cheeks, but they were held back by the bandage. If there's one thing worse than crying, it's needing to cry and not being able to. "Alice is dead, isn't she?"

"Alyssa, just calm down, okay?" said a much more familiar voice. Anthony. "I have Alice, and she's perfectly fine."

I felt something small and warm land on me. "Bulba bulb!"

"Alice!" She jumped into my arms and I pulled her into the biggest hug that you ever saw. "Alice, you're okay!" Alice licked my face, and I then I smiled for the first time that day. "What happened?" I asked, once my thoughts were back in order. "I remember chasing after some Pokémon in the woods, and then I woke up here."

The gruff old voice cleared his throat. "Well, you got into a spat with old Henry."

"Henry?"

"That's what the town calls the Heatmor that lives out in the woods just east of here, Midna Town."

Midna Town? I made it! Just...not as gloriously as I had hoped.

The man went on. "Henry's been terrorizing my townsfolk a lot. People have been steering clear of Route 1 because of him." There was a rustle of paper. "You see, the area around Route 1 is a mating ground for a lot of field Pokémon; Rattatas, Bidoof, Poochyena, the like. A lot of children with weaker Pokémon hang around there to take advantage of the training opportunity. Then, along comes Henry the Heatmor. He's not that strong of a Heatmor, but here among the weaker Pokémon, he's the boss and he likes people to know it."

"Sound like a dick." That was Anthony that said that, just so you know.

"He is, kid. He is," the man replied. "He doesn't like anyone coming near him, people or Pokémon. Just two weeks ago he killed two six-year-olds that stumbled into his nest when they were playing in the woods. He's killed several humans in the past two years. You should really consider yourself lucky, miss. Few people ever see Henry up close and live to tell about it."

Well, damn. I don't feel that lucky.

Okay, quick sum up time: I wake up with no memories in the Cult of Darkrai cave, and then escape with the help of Mew. Then I stop two cultists from assassinating the Augur. Then I get attacked by a homicidal fire Pokémon that puts me in the hospital...where I wake up with no memories of the attack. All of that in just two days. Friggin' amazing. God only knows what happens next.

"So...does that mean I can take the bandage off my face now? It really sucks not being able to see, you know."

"Well," said the woman, presumably a nurse, "You sustained several burns in the attack, including one right on the face. None of them were too serious, but it's best that you keep your eyes covered to let them recuperate. Taking it off now could cause some serious vision problems."

"...how long do I have to keep the bandage on?"

"Two weeks."

What? "I have to be blind for two weeks?" God, my life sucks.

* * *

The only good thing that came out of the whole situation was that it was the first time I ever held a boy's hand. At least, the first time that I could remember. And it was just Anthony guiding to my room at the Pokémon Center. There wasn't anything romantic about it.

Kinda a bummer.

"Hey, is that nurse around?" I asked.

"No. Why?"

I reached up with my free hand and tore the bandage off. "Because I'm _not_ wearing that for two weeks." The area around my eyes felt cooler now, as it felt air on it for the first time in a while. It felt good. But my eyes stung. You know how you sometimes get soap or shampoo in your eyes while you're in the shower, and it makes them sting? This is exactly like that. Only about twenty times worse.

Anthony let go of my hand. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because I need to see. It sucks when you can't see." The stinging had caused my eyes to water, and the tears slowly rolled down my cheeks, which caused some more slight stinging in the tender area around them.

"This is true," Anthony said. "Just give your eyes a rest and let them heal. Take it easy. Just sit back and listen to some music or something."

"I'm fine," I told him. My eyes were perfectly fine. Just a little burned, and other than the constant stinging, there was nothing wrong with them. Except for the slight blurriness. "There's important things that I need to attend to. And besides, my Pokémon and I need to do some training. The first Gym is in the next town, and I don't think we're ready for it yet."

The blonde teen frowned. He stared at me for a moment. "Is that more important than your own health?" he asked. "You were out cold for two days after getting attacked by a wild Pokémon, and less than an hour after you wake up, you're already trying to rush your self back out into the world, with little concern that you've actually been injured."

"I said I was fine." I reached down and picked up Alice, who had been at my side. "I can take care of myself. If there's a problem, then I know where to go." I know I might be seeming a little agitated. I am. You would be too, if you'd just woke up for the second time without knowing what happened.

Anthony let out a sigh. "You're just like him, you know." He looked up. "But you're right. You can take care of yourself." He stuck his hands in his pockets with a slight smirk on his face. "Just do me a favor though. At least look presentable before you go outside."

"What?" I looked at myself through hurting eyes. The gray and orange jumpsuit that I had been wearing now had several scorched spots, as well as some holes burned into it. Fortunately, everything that needed to be covered still was. "Oh...um, yeah. I should probably do that."

"Here. Room 411. I got it just for you." Anthony pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to me. "You can thank me later. I need to be going now." He left with a wave, leaving me and Alice alone in the hallway.

"Well, come on, Alice," I told my Bulbasaur, who was already drifting off in my arms. "Let's get a little bit of rest, but not too much. I need a shower, and then we have things to do and people to see."

* * *

I stood in the bathroom, looking at the person in the mirror. It was me, but it didn't feel like it was. I knew nothing about the girl looking back at me. Her burned eyes, the dyed hair, the empty stare, that's all I knew about me. Pain, lies, and sadness. But there had to be something more there. There was something else to me than that, right? There had to be.

But what was it?

"God, Alyssa," I muttered, lowing my head and closing my eyes. "Who are you?" I sank to my knees and sat there in a heap on the floor. "You don't even know your last name. How sad is that?" Tears formed in my eyes, causing the burns to sting. It's not fair. All I want to do is just sit around with my friends and have a good time. But I can't. Because I'm just some idiot that can't even remember her own last name!

I balled up my fist and punched the wall. Pain shot up all of my fingers and into my wrist. "Dammit, Alyssa, why are you so stupid?" I fell on my back. I'm so pathetic… Something rubbed its head against my shoulder.

"Bulba?" Alice asked, tilting her head at me.

"I'm fine, Alice," I said, wiping my tears on the burned sleeve. "I was…I was just about to take a shower." I can't let her see me looking like a weenie. Pokémon trainers need to look strong to their Pokémon. "You can...uh, take a nap or something."

"Bulb?" asked Alice. "Bulba bulb." I knew that she knew that something was wrong, but that she didn't want to press the matter. It's not like she could've actually talked to me about my problems anyway.

I did a quick check for injuries while I was in the shower. There were a fair number of scrapes and cuts and bruises, but there wasn't anything that serious. Other than the giant burn on my face. Which was in pain as the water ran down it. I tried to shampoo my hair, but some the shampoo got onto the burn, and I thought I was going to scream in pain.

My God, I hate that Heatmor.

When I got out of the shower, I dressed in my second outfit, the purple shirt and blue jeans. I gently folded the burned jumpsuit and packed it into the bottom of my backpack. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. It was what I had on when I woke up with no memories. There was a connection between it and it. I guess that since it was one of the few things that felt familiar, my mind wasn't willing to let it go.

Besides, I'm sure I can still wear it. I can patch up the holes.

Alice was asleep on the TV remote, while some soap opera about four teenage trainers in Hoenn played on the TV. I sat next to her and rubbed her head, watching the show. It wasn't very good, and one of the characters had the most fucked up life I had ever seen. No memories, voices in his head, stalked by some dark Pokémon? Yawn. Boring. Expect for that no memory part.

I gently pulled the remote out from under Alice and snapped off the TV part of the way through. "That wasn't very good," I muttered to myself. "But...maybe I'll see the rest of it someday. Maybe once the writing gets better."

My Bulbasaur was sleeping peacefully next to me. She probably hadn't been asleep for more than half-an hour. Man, she's going to hate me for having to wake her up so soon. "Alice, wake up." I shook Alice, but she simply grumbled and pushed my hand away. "Alice, you can't sleep forever. We need to get moving.

"Bulb..." she growled, cracking her eyes open. Alice blinked several times before yawning and stretching. "Bulb!" She gave a half-smile, still half-unhappy that her nap was interrupted. But at least she was ready to get going.

"First stop, getting Prescott," I told her, as I picked her up. "Second stop..." What was the second stop? The Gym's in the next town. Maybe there's some place that we can train and become stronger. Wait, didn't Damian say that there was a Trainer School here? That definitely seems like a place we can get stronger. "Second stop is the trainer school!"

* * *

The nurse gave me a great big smile as she handed Prescott's Pokéball to me. "Your Pikachu is now completely healthy! Thank you for stopping by Midna Town's Pokémon Center! We hope to see you again!"

I gave her an uneasy stare. She wants to see us here again? Does she _want _my Pokémon to get hurt. "Um...yeah, thanks." I took Prescott's Pokéball. I was about to let him out when a thought crossed my mind. "You didn't notice anything...wrong...with him when you treated him, did you?"

"Wrong?" The nurse frowned. "Not that I can remember. But we just healed what wounds he had and brought him back up to fighting shape. We didn't do a full check-up on him. Do you want us to do one on him?"

I looked at my blurry reflection in the red top of the Pokéball. There might not be anything wrong with Prescott. But there might be; he hasn't been able to use Thundershock yet. Maybe that's just because you haven't trained him well enough yet; not all Pokémon grow the same. "Um...no thanks." I decided to put off the check-up, at least until the next town. If he hasn't learned Thundershock by then, then I'll see if there's something wrong with him.

We left the Pokémon Center, and I let Prescott out. He looked around for a few minutes, his mouth a mere flat line, and the light in his eyes faint. I'm guessing he wasn't in a good mood at the moment. "Hey, Prescott. How are you?" I crouched down and scratched between his ears.

"Pika."

"That good, huh." I couldn't tell if that was a good pika or a bad pika. "You up for some training?"

Prescott shook his head. "Pika."

"Oh, well..." Hm. That's probably not a good sign. "You can watch Alice and I train, if you want. I'll even let you ride on my shoulder."

"Pika..." Prescott shrugged, his eyes still distant, and slowly climbed onto my shoulder. "Pika pii."

Midna Town is exactly the same as Telnor Town, only completely different. Midna was a bit larger, and there was a Trainer School on a hill rather than the Pokémon Lab down one. The houses were a bit larger, and more uniform. There were two small ponds.

We were following the dirt road that lead to the Trainer School as we passed one of these ponds. There was a really sad sight to see at the water's edge. A boy, maybe a year or two younger than myself, was sitting with his feet in the water, and his traveling gear in a heap behind him. In his hands was a flower, devoid of all but two petals. He picked one of the petals. "She loves me," he muttered, tossing the petal into the water. He took the last petal between his thumb and his forefinger. "She...damn it." He tossed the rest of the flower into the pond, and hung his head low and folded his arms. The perfect image of defeat and hopelessness.

It was pretty depressing. Can't there ever be anything fun and joyful on this adventure?

"I feel kinda bad for that kid," I said to my Pokémon as we passed. Both of them were still looking back at the kid, holding some interest. Alice could probably feel his emotions, and Prescott...well, maybe Prescott could relate. "I understand how he feels."

"Bulb?" Alice looked up at me, her eyes questioning.

"Okay, maybe not for the same reasons that he does," I clarified. I've never been so sad about a boy that didn't like me back before. Well, at least that I can remember. I feel like I've been saying that a lot...at least from what I can remember...okay, I'm done. "I've felt pretty hopeless before, mostly recently. Choosing to start on an adventure without memories can be...taxing, on one's mind." My mind gave me a brief flashback to the scene in the bathroom earlier today.

"Bulba. Bulba bulb bulb." Then my Bulbasaur looked up to Prescott. "Bulba bulb?"

"Pika..."

"Bulb."

"Pika pii..."

The two of them started off into another conversation, and I smiled. It's nice to see your Pokémon getting along so well. But it sucks when you get left out of a conversation. So instead I tried to busy my mind by looking around. Oh look, a flower! And another! And a tree! I like trees. They're so...treey. Okay, so I was still a little on the sarcastic side there.

We finally reached the Trainer's School. It took us a little longer to get there since we had gotten lost. I know, I know, Midna's a small town, how could you get lost? Well, I took the male approach to getting there: screw the directions and hope for the best.

It wasn't as impressive as I had hoped. Rather than a large university-like building, it was a simple, single room building with one chalkboard in the back, and several rows of tables. In the back was a raised platform, with the classic Pokéball design on it, presumably making it a battlefield for the trainers. The teacher was at the board, writing something down, while several students were taking notes. I didn't really recognize any of them except for – hey look, it's Damian!

"...and these," said the teacher, underlining two words in white chalk, "are the two types that are most effective against the Steel-Type." I couldn't see the words, but my brain apparently had them tucked away in my mind somewhere.

Fire, Ground. Huh, I knew that. Didn't know that I knew that.

"And now, moving on to the Dark-Type." The teacher turned around, and then noticed me standing there. "Excuse me, young lady. Are you here for the classes?"

Instantly, I felt all eyes turn my way. Damian's eyes lit up when he saw me. He waved. I gave a small wave back. "Um...yeah, I guess so." I don't know why, but I was nervous. It wasn't anything that bad, but having everyone staring at me was really unnerving.

The teacher remained silent for several seconds, before lowering her glasses. "Guessing won't get you far in this class, young lady. You have to know the material, and you having to be sure that you want to know it."

"Um...then I'm sure that I want to take the classes?" It was more of a question than a statement. Then I added a "I guess," under my breath, where she couldn't hear me.

"Very well." She took a few steps toward me, eyes daring toward Prescott. The Pikachu was already trying to hide himself from view my ducking under my hair. "You're Pikachu doesn't look that strong," said the teacher, eying the hiding yellow Pokémon. "What makes you think that it should be trained?"

"Because...um...all Pokémon are weak, until they're trained and become stronger, together with their trainer, as partners. That's the role of the trainer." My mouth spat it out before my mind could think the words. Again, I didn't know that I knew that.

The teacher's thin lips slowly curled into a small smile. "That's correct," she said. "You passed the first test. Knowing the role of the trainer and their Pokémon is the most important part of being a trainer." She walked back up to the board. "Although, I'm going to have to ask you to return your Pokémon to their Pokéballs. I don't allow Pokémon in class except for tournament days. Too much of a distraction." She peered over the class, looking for a spot for me. "You may take the empty seat next to...," she trailed off, looking at Damian. "I'm sorry, what's your name again?"

"Damian," he replied, rolling his eyes. "It's like the fifth time I've said that."

"Don't get that attitude with me," she snapped. Damian mouthed a swear word to himself, and fortunately, she didn't notice. The teacher picked up a piece of paper from her desk and took up a pen. "You may take the seat next to Damian, Miss..."

I took a few steps towards my new seat before I realized that she was waiting. "Oh, um, A-Alyssa. I'm...I'm Alyssa." Wow, real smooth idiot. You're really not very good at this whole school thing, are you?

The teacher wrote on the paper. "Last name?"

Oh crap. Really? Think of something really good and really fast. "Um...J-Jones?" Okay, that wasn't good, but it was fast.

She looked up. "Are you asking me, or telling me?"

"Telling?"

"Again, are you asking me, or telling?"

"T-telling."

The teacher wrote down more stuff on the paper. She looked up at me, and then back down and continued writing. Several seconds passed before she stood up from her desk and brought the paper over to me. "Here you are, Miss Alyssa Jones. You'll need to have your parents sign this before the end of the week."

Parents? I don't even know my real last name! How am I supposed to know who the people that brought me into this world are? "Um...yeah. I'll do that." Translation: Screw this, I'm leaving town before the end of the week.

"Who are your parents?" the teacher asked suddenly. "I don't recall any Jones family in Midna Town."

Crap. Um...think. Think. Think. I could say Telnor Town, but Damian lives there so if I'm wrong he'd call me out. Or maybe he wouldn't. Would he? I think we're better friends than that. He might let it slide. Okay, so...wait. Better plan. "Um, I'm actually from Hoenn, and my parents are still there. It might be a little hard to get them to sign the paper."

"Hoenn?" the teacher smiled. Why do I get the feeling that that's not a good thing. "I'm from Hoenn myself. Where in Hoenn do you come from?" Oh, yep. There it is. Talk about unlucky. You pick the one region that the person you're trying to deceive comes from. Way to go, Alyssa.

Fortunately, Damian decided to come to my rescue. I'll need to thank him for that later. "I think she said she was from Sunnyshore City. Right Alyssa?" He elbowed me, trying to get me to play along.

I was already ahead of him. "Yeah. Sunyshore City." Several of the other class members snickered, while others just face-palmed and groaned. Something wasn't right. We screwed up somewhere.

The teacher's smile instantly fell. "Oh, really? That's very interesting." The teacher went up to the board and pulled down a map of some region. She tapped on a red square in the bottom right hand corner. "Here's Sunyshore City, but something seems to be a little off." She pointed to the name of the region. Sunyshore is in Sinnoh."

Oh balls. Thanks a lot, Damian, master of geography. I shot him an evil look. He just shrugged and mouth an apology. I'll need to hit him for this later. "Um...yeah."

"Miss Jones, there's something that you're not telling me, isn't there?"

"Um...yeah."

"And that is?"

"Mrs. Bell, don't you think we've wasted too much class time on this?" asked a boy in the second row. He looked to be around thirteen, with styled blue hair that was slicked back. His jeans were similar to the ones I was wearing; roughed up and a little ragged. He wore a leather jacket that reminded me a little of Anthony's, and he had a green shirt underneath. "Could this wait until after class so I can continue my education?"

The teacher, apparently named Mrs. Bell, looked up at the student for a few long seconds. With a sigh, she gave in. "You're right Alex." She looked back at me. "Miss Jones, I'd like to see you after class." Then she turned and went back to the board, continuing on with her lecture on the Steel-Type as if nothing happened. I wasn't really paying attention, but that was because I was cooking up a humdinger of an excuse to get myself out of this mess.

And I think I got it.

"Okay, class," Mrs. Bell said as the bell rang. "You know what your homework assignment is. I expect you all to have it tomorrow. And don't forget about the tournament we're holding the day after tomorrow. It'll be a great opportunity to get some bonus points on the next test."

Someone's hand went up. "Is Nora going to be in it?"

Mrs. Bell smiled. "Yes, she is."

Everyone but me and Damian groaned. "Forget it. I'm out," said one of the students. "It's not fair. She always wins. And she's not even in the class!" Several other complaints were voiced as the students left. Soon it was just Damian and I alone.

"Miss Jones, you and I need to finish our...talk."

Damian grabbed my shoulder. "I'll wait for you outside."

I nodded and stood up, slowly walking toward the teacher. I had spent the last thirty minutes in class dreaming up a grand story that would cover every aspect of my situation, without actually giving anything away. I mean, come on, who would believe me if I said I lost my memory? Not many. And those who did would try to get me help. I didn't want help. I wanted to continue on my not-so-merry adventure.

I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

* * *

**Okay, I'm going to be the first to admit that this isn't my favorite chapter. I don't think I did that great a job on it. Nothing important plot-wise happened, and nothing important in general happened. Other than my subtle self-reference in here. If you find it, it's actually pretty cool. Kinda, okay maybe not. The next chapter will be much more important. This chapter was a little bit rushed, since I had kinda put it off for a while.**

**Anyway, one of the things that I like to do for my stories is come up with a "theme song," a song that I pretty much just appoint to the story for no apparent reason. Most of the time, I pick songs that I like, even if they're completely unrelated to the story. I haven't really come up with one for this story, but I'm thinking "Sad Song" by We ****t****he Kings ****more specifically, the Nightcore version of it****. If you have a ****better ****suggestion, let me know.**

**Oh, and the 17th was my birthday. A little late, but I thought I would throw that in.**

**Well, that's it. Until next chapter. Audios!**


	7. Nora

**Naruto secret justu:** I think I answered your question early on, and the teacher probably doesn't have ties with the cults. In the game, she only had a few lines of dialogue, but I fleshed her out a bit for the story. Made her a little more interesting.

**Antex – The Legendary Zoroark:** Yep. A Heatmor. As I said, probably not that interesting. Also, sorry for saying that I would have this chapter done sooner than it actually was. And that your OC would be in it. (I changed a few things around).

**DarkNightPheonixFire:** You're probably right about the 'adios' thing. Really should've consulted spell check on that one. Thank you for pointing it out.

* * *

_Chapter Seven: Nora_

"So...you were born in Hoenn, but now you're an orphan, and parents died when you were only a few weeks old. Then you spent all fifteen years of your life in a foster home, where you were adopted by an abusive family from Sinnoh, and you ran away a few months ago, and now you're here?" Damian asked, slightly skeptical of my story. Apparently, when he said 'I'll wait for you outside,' he really meant 'I'll wait for you outside, but just close enough to hear your explanation.'

So now I pretty much had use the same lie on him as well. "Pretty much, yeah." I was trying to act all cool about it, but I knew that the lie would eventually collapse in on itself somehow sometime. Chances are, Damian would be the one that picks it apart. "But...I don't like talking about it much."

_Alyssa,_ I told myself. _You really need to stop lying. Maybe tell the truth for once. That might make things easier on you. _No it won't. People will think you're some kind of nut. _People already think that. _Oh, good point.

"Did Mrs. Bell have mercy on you?"

"Yeah. She said she'd let me take the classes for as long as I needed to. But she said if my foster parents showed up, that I'd have to go back with them." She was really strict about that part. Something about not wanting to get sued or something.

"Did she let you into the tournament?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Do you think you can win?" Damian asked with a smirk. "Charmander and I have been training, and I've picked up some new Pokémon as well." He motioned to his belt. Three Pokéballs resided there. "We've already won a couple of battles against some other trainers."

I'll go ahead and admit it. I felt a pang of jealousy at that. He's won a few battles, and my only victory was that cultist. I lost to Damian in our first battle, and I lost to that guy with the Patrat, and I lost to that Heatmor. Man, I really need to start getting serious about this.

But, I kept those feelings to myself. "Can I see them?" I asked, eyes still on Damian's Pokéballs. "I only have Alice, and I caught a Pikachu just outside of Telnor."

Damian smiled. "Sorry, you'll just have to wait until the tournament if you want to see them."

"Oh come on, that's lame. You've already seen Alice and Prescott."

"I know. I'm not terribly impressed."

I glared at him for a moment. I knew that he was just messing with me, but I thought I'd have a little fun too. and then I punched lightly him on the shoulder. "Don't insult my Pokémon like that. They're perfectly capable of fighting. We kicked those cult guys asses, didn't we?"

"Those guys? Heh, I didn't even break a sweat against those guys."

"Yeah, me neither." We stood there in silence for a few seconds, like two friends that hadn't seen each other in a long time that were trying to make conversation. "So...you're not going to show me, then?"

"Nope."

I sighed. There went any hope of an advantage. Right now, it looks like some heavy training was needed. If I can't get the advantage, I might as well get my team stronger.

But before I could ask, Damain asked another question. "Hey, Alyssa? What the heck happened to your face? Did you get in a fight with the wrong end of a flamethrower or something?"

"Well...kinda. Turns out that there's this Heatmor on Route 1. Henry, I think they call him. He's a really great guy. Nice personality. Blasts anyone and everyone with a nice stream of fire."

"Wait, you battled Henry?"

"You know about him?"

Damian shrugged. "I've heard stories around the town. He's killed people, you know."

I shrugged. "Yeah." Time to change the subject, before Damian calls me crazy for challenging a homicidal Heatmor. "Are there any good places to train around here?" Route 1 was out of the question.

"There's the Midna Mine," replied Damian, "that's where I trained my team."

"Awesome. Then that's where I'm going to go."

* * *

As it turns out, Midna Mine is a cave. And if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. I hate caves. Highly. With a passion. If I could nuke all the caves in the world, I would. And then I'd replace them with smoothie shops. Hm. A smoothie sounds really good right now. Strawberry, maybe?

"Bulb!" Alice was actually walking this time, I didn't have to carry her, and she had been exploring every single rock and crevice that she ran into. She's probably looking for something helpful, but so far there wasn't anything.

As if I were surprised. This is a cave, after all. You can't just find a strawberry smoothie in a cave.

Prescott was slumping along behind us, kicking the rocks that Alice overturned. He had been fine for a little while after the school, but it seemed as if his mood had slipped back to dark and depressed. I really need to get him looked at, or something. That wouldn't be weird, right? Just a normal trainer taking her Pikachu to therapy?

Just as Damian had said, the mine was full of the trainers from the school, all out training for the big tournament. I quickly scoped out the competition. They had the pretty standard Pokémon of the local area; Bidoof, Rattata, Geodude, Baltoy, and I even saw one Nosepass. Nothing too concerning, except maybe that Nosepass. Based off the status of its battle, rocks with big noses can be quite dangerous.

"Bulba!"

"No, Alice we can't challenge the trainers from the school," I told her, crouching down and rubbing her head. "We're only facing wild Pokémon today."

"Bulb?"

"Because, if we face any of the school trainers, then they're going to ask about what happened in class." I've already lied to the teacher, and I felt bad about that. But I had to do it. What if she was working with the cults? They'd be on the look out for people with no memories. "And I really, really, _really _don't want to deal with that right now?"

"Bulb?"

"Oh, right, you were in your Pokéball during class. I'll...I'll explain later." I stood up and cracked my knuckles. "Okay, team, let's kick some butt."

"Bulb!" cheered Alice.

"Pika." deadpanned Prescott.

Oh yeah, we're psyched for some victory.

I decided to head down tunnels that no one else was using, which served me well in my objective of avoiding other people. Besides, all their battling was scaring away the wild Pokémon, the finding of which was our main objective.

It took us only a minute and a half to run, quite literally in this instance, into a wild Pokémon. The Baltoy was lazily floating around some dank, dark tunnel, and we walked right into it. "Oh, sorry," I apologized, taking a step back. "I didn't see you there."

The Baltoy made some huff sound while he inspected me. It was probably decided on whether or not to accept my apology and move on, but it wasn't going to get the chance. "Attack!" I shouted, and Alice instantly jumped up and tackled the Baltoy to the ground. "Nice job, Alice."

"Bulb!" she smiled proudly back up at me, which unfortunately caused her to loosen her grip on the Baltoy.

The Baltoy grunted, and threw Alice off of him. He levitated up, growling at me. He was pissed but, he wasn't going to stick around for the fight. With a loud shouted of "bal!" he took off down the tunnel.

"Prescott, use your Quick Attack!"

"Pika!" If there was anything that rejuvenated Prescott from one of his bad news, it was battling. And while it made me happy to see him happy, it kinda bothered me that violence made him happy. "Pika!" He bolted off after the Baltoy, then slammed into it, crashing into a wall.

That looked like it hurt. A lot. "Prescott?" I didn't hear anything. Both of the Pokémon were laying on the ground, not moving. "Prescott, are you okay?" He's not dead...is he? Maybe there was something wrong with his head, which prevented him from using Thundershock, and the impact made it worse and it killed-

"Pika." Prescott slowly rose to his feet, shaking it off. "Pika," he said again. He was okay. At least, that's what I think he said.

The Baltoy didn't fare so well. It was staggering around worse than a drunk redneck on New Years. With a weak growl, a pink aura formed around Prescott, and then imploded on him, knocking him back several feet and inflicted some decent damage. "Bal!" the Baltoy shouted, before fleeing down the cave.

"Come on, it's getting away!" I took off after the Baltoy. "Prescott, do you think you can use another Quick Attack to keep up?"

"Pika," He replied, with a determined face. Despite slamming into a wall and taking a Confusion attack, he still seemed to be ready to fight. He might not deal much damage in a battle, but Prescott sure can take some.

Prescott bolted after the fleeing wild Pokémon like a bolt of lightning. The Baltoy was just ahead of him, and then took a tunnel to the left. Prescott followed, running out of my sight.

Alice was struggling to keep up with me. She didn't know any speed moves like Quick Attack or anything, so she was confined to using her small legs. "Okay, Alice, time to hitch a ride." I scooped her up and we continued after Prescott.

By now, he was far out of sight, but he had ran through a random puddle of water. The light (I still don't know where it comes from) reflected off the foot prints he left, separating them from the dull rock floor. I felt like a hero from an action movie. The only way to find Prescott was to follow the trail of wet foot prints.

Well, that and the fact that there was only one tunnel, so it was pretty obvious where to go. But I like the first one better.

But the footprings soon faded away, and I was left with no way of knowing which way my Pikachu had gone. Other than to follow the tunnel. But I was still nervous. How far away can he be? It can't be that far, can it? This cave's a lot bigger than it looked. I hate caves. Where's Prescott?

"Alice, you're a Psychic-Type, right?" I asked, even though I knew the answer. "Can you use some pyschic sensy thingy to find Prescott?"

"Bulb." She closed her eyes and focused. At least, that's what I think she was doing. She might've been snuggling in for a nap. After several seconds, she opened her eyes and shook her head. "Bulb."

I muttered a bad word. "It's okay," I said to myself. "He'll be at the end of the tunnel. This tunnel has to end somewhere, right?" The image in my head of this tunnel going on and on wasn't that appealing. What if this was the tunnel that lead to the gates of hell? I kept a look out for a sign that read "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" but I wasn't seeing one. That's a plus, right?

Then we rounded a corner, and there he was. Prescott was standing at the edge of a ledge, looking out into a large room in the cave. "Prescott, what's up?" I asked, walking over to him and crouching down next to him.

"Pika." He pointed out into the clearing.

A girl was standing in the middle of a bunch of rocks, surrounded by four mean looking Pokémon. At first I thought they were going to tear her apart, but after a few seconds I realized that they were peaceful. So I hid myself behind a rock and decided to watch from the shadows.

She slowly walked over to one of them, and gently placed her hand on its hard shell. "An Omastar," she said, with a hint of disbelief in her voice. "A real live Omastar from millions of years ago." She smiled at the creature. "Welcome back to the land of the living, though it's only for a short while."

The girl went over to a different Pokémon. "A Kabutops. You're looking pretty lively for a Pokémon that's been dead for eons." She petted it on the shoulder and moved on to the next.

"Bastidon, it's nice to meet you," she said, holding her hand out to it. "I'm Nora."

Nora, huh? That sounds familiar.

The large creature simply snorted at Nora and looked around, confused. All of them were. They had just been yanked from the clutches of death and now some strange being was addressing them.

"Cradlily," the girl said to the fourth Pokémon. She then opened her mouth to say something, but apparently couldn't think of anything to say. So she simply waved at it. "Hi." The Cradlily muttered something at her under her breath. I didn't catch it, but I probably wasn't a compliment.

The girl. Nora, apparently, walked back to the center of the room. "Okay Celebi, you can send them back now." A fifth Pokémon suddenly appeared next to her, much smaller and greener than the others. "Use your Tesseract move."

There was a bright flash of light. "Damn!" I swore, my hand darting up to my eyes. My injured eyes took the bright flash of light much worse than an uninjured pair of eyes. Normally, you would just go blind for several seconds and maybe feel a slight stinging. I went blind for several more seconds, and it felt like the insides of my eyes were on fire.

"Pika?" I felt a tug on my sleeve.

"I'm fine, Prescott," I whispered to him. "Just give me a minute." Nearly a minute later, everything was fine. My eyes still had a slight sting to them, but I was fully operational.

The four Pokémon were gone. In their places were large stones, with fossils embedded in them. I recognized them as the four Pokémon. "Huh. That's interesting." The girl was gone, from what I could tell. "Come on, guys, let's go check out these fossils."

I jumped off the ledge, which was only like three feet off the ground, and made my way to the stones. There was an eerie feeling in the air, I can't really explain it. Like millions of years had just passed through this cave in the span of five minutes.

"Bulb?" Alice jumped out of my arms and wandered up to the Kabutops fossil. She tilted her head at it. "Bulba bulb?"

"I know," I replied, running my hands over the smooth form of the Cradlily. "It's weird. These things are millions of years old, but we just saw them up and alive a few minutes ago. People found a way to revive them with certain machines." I stepped back from the fossil. "I guess that's what that girl did."

"Actually, I just had Celebi pull them from the past and put them in the future."

The voice had made me jump. Okay, I screamed a little too, as much as I hate to admit it. "Who are you?" I asked, turning around to face the girl. She apparently liked green, because that was the main color in her outfit. Even her hair had dark green highlights in it.

"My name is Nora," she said with a smile, and extended her hand to me. "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss..."

"Um...Alyssa." I shook her hand. "My name is Alyssa."

Nora smiled the innocent smile of a young girl, but her eyes were hiding something from me. "As I was saying, I didn't revive the fossils by the usual means. Techinically, I didn't revive them at all." She motioned to the small green Pokémon fluttering next to her. "Celebi simply grabbed them from a certain period in time, and the brought them to the present. Unfortunately, the Pokémon were from millions of years ago, and Celebi had a hard time keeping them here. Anything beyond ten-thousand years is hard to keep in the present."

Well, that was interesting. And a little confusing. "So...this Celebi can just bring things from the past into the present?" You know, that might actually be helpful. Maybe Celebi could bring my memories to the present.

"Well, yes, anything within reason."

"Within reason?"

Nora nodded. "It's complicated. I'm not going to talk about it."

"Oh...well, I don't suppose that you could, maybe, possibly, do one little favor for me. Please?" I had my fingers crossed on that memory thing. This could be it. The day that I finally-

"Sorry, we're not taking requests right now. Celebi can't just flaunt her power like that. We need to maintain secrecy," Nora explained. "In fact, no one's supposed to know that I even have Celebi with me."

"Really? Why not?"

Nora shrugged. "Well, there's this propechy, you see. It says that someone paired up with one of the Pixie Legendaries will bring down the five cults. So, naturally, the cults are on the look out for the Pixie Legendaries. The First Augur was paired up with Hoopa."

Okay, quick recap. She doesn't want people to know that she has Celebi, but she's more than willing to share bunch of information that could easily get her killed, if what she's saying is true. And I thought I was dumb. Why is she just telling me everything? Wait, why am I asking myself?

"Why are you just telling me everything? We just met. Why should you trust me? You don't know anything about me. I could be a cultist, and you would've just made the top of our hit list."

Nora giggled. Normally, I thought it would've been cute, like a schoolgirl giggle, but in the given situation, it was very ominous. "Well, I always do that when people discover me and Celebi."

"Y-you do?"

"Yep. Right before Celebi sends them back a few hundred years in the past, where they can't do anything about it."

Oh...

"You're going to send me back in time?" I asked, for clarification.

"Yep."

Well, this was certainly an unpleasant turn of events. I can just add getting sent back in time to my list of strange things that have happened to me in the past two days. No, wait. I'm going to get out of this. Think Alyssa. How do I get out of this? Ideally, in this time period. I don't think Alice and Prescott could take out the Celebi...but maybe...Hm. I need to stall for time.

"But...I won't tell anyone."

"Hey, you said it yourself, Alyssa," Nora replied. "Why should I trust you?"

"Um..." Hm. That was a good question. Dammit, I hate my stupid mouth."I'm a good person?"

"Maybe so, but I can't take the risk." Nora turned to Celebi. "Are you ready?" Celebi nodded. "Okay, then. I guess this is it. It's been nice knowing you, Alyssa. I really hate to do this to you, but I need to protect myself. Maybe I can send Celebi back to get you when this is all over."

"B-b-but..."

"Mew."

There was a dead silence in the cave.

Nora broke it. "What was that?"

"Mew."

That can't be what I think it is, is it?

"Mew." Lo and behold, the little pink Pokémon that escorted me from the Cult of Darkrai's base appeared next to me, looking as uninterested as usual. "Mew."

I sighed with relief. "It's about time you showed up." It's been a little while since I've heard from good old Mew. I guess it knew that it needed to bail me out of some trouble again. I guess that's a good thing. If I ever need help, it's Mew to the rescue. At least, I hoped it was.

Nora's eyes darted from me, to Mew, to me, to Mew, to me, to Mew. "You're...you know Mew?"

"Well, I guess. I mean, Mew did help me out of a bind not that long ago." I looked over to the pink Pokémon in question, who was simply floating there, eyeing Celebi with some vague admiration. "I like to think that we're friends."

"I see. Have you told anyone about this?"

"No. Nobody."

Nora nodded. "That's good. Well then, I guess you and I are in the same boat, Alyssa. I won't have to send you hundred of years into the past."

"Thank God for that."

"Yeah. It's a little bit mean, but I think Celebi has fun doing it."

Celebi just shrugged, hiding a smile. And that's pretty scary, if you ask me.

"Anyway," Nora went on, "you do understand that befriending Mew puts you in a dangerous position, right? If any of the cults find out, they will hunt you down and they will kill you."

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were already hunting me down. I was, after all, and escaped prisoner. But I kept that to myself. "Yeah, I understand. I'm not that worried. Mew doesn't hang around with me that often. He...she...it...whatever it is, just kinda pops up every now and then."

"Okay. And I trust that you won't tell anyone about me and Celebi, right?"

"I won't. Promise." I held out my pinkie. "I'll even do a pinkie swear if you want."

Nora shook her head. "No, that's okay." She turned to her little green, time-traveling Pokémon. "Come on Celebi, we're leaving." She turned back to me. "Well, I guess we'll see you around, Alyssa. Good luck with Mew." Nora walked out of the cave with Celebi right behind her.

"Well, that was certainly interesting," I said, watching as they faded into a dark tunnel. I turned to Mew. "So, are you sticking around this time, or are you going to ditch me again?"

"Mew." The pink Pokémon vanished in a flash of pink light.

"Well, that's not surprising." I was a little disappointed. Celebi seemed to have a lot of respect for Nora. Mew...well, I don't think Mew likes me that much. I don't like Mew that much either, even though he/she/it, whatever, saved me from an evil cult that stole my memories and planned to kill me. "Come on, guys" I said to Alice and Prescott, both of which were completely confused at the events that had just taken place. "Let's get back to some training."

* * *

We spent a few more hours in that cave before we decided to head back to the Pokémon Center. Surprisingly, the building with the red roof was nearly empty when we arrived despite that it was midday. And the day before the tournament. I figured there would be a long line of trainers here, but I guess they're all out training. Not that I'm complaining.

I handed the nurse my Pokéballs and went over to the bookshelf in look of something to read while I waited. You might not know this, but Pokémon Centers do not have a great selection of reading material. Just a bunch of books about caring for your Pokémon, making sure that they're happy and healthy and other things that you should care about that you probably ignore anyways.

With nothing to read, I headed upstairs to the Pokémon Mart to see what they had to offer. I didn't actually have a lot of money to spend, though, so it was just window shopping for me. I looked at all the Potions and Pokéballs that I couldn't afford. I still have a few Pokéballs left, and I think a Potion or two.

"Can I help you?" asked the clerk as he walked out of the backroom, with a cardboard box in his hands. He looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, around Anthony's age, and had well-kept brown hair and matching eyes. "We just got a new shipment of Super Potions, if you want some."

I stood up from looking at the packs of Pokéballs and shook my head. "Yeah, um...no thanks. I could use some, my Pikachu isn't exactly the strongest fighter, but I can't really afford it." All the money that I was earning was going towards food. All I had was a bag of stale brownies and some cold pancakes. Really living the high life there.

The clerk just kind of laughed as he set the box down. "Rookie trainer?" I nodded. "Well, then, here." He slid one of the Super Potions over to me. "On the house."

"Thanks," I said, smiling as I caught the item. "That's really nice of you."

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'm always willing to help out new trainers," he said. "Especially the pretty ones."

Oh, so he was hitting on me. Huh. Didn't think that was going to happen until a little later. Oh well, I guess I'll just deal with this in the usual Alyssa way. "Um...yeah, I'm pretty hot." Wait, I don't think that was the right response...

The clerk laughed. "Yeah, you are. Even with the eyes."

Oh, right. I forgot that my eyes were completely screwed up because of a damn Heatmor. "Yeah...that's a long story. I ran into a homicidal Heatmor, and he apparently blasted fire in my face."

"Heatmor? You mean Henry?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"You should consider yourself lucky," said the clerk. "That Heatmor has killed people before."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know. I've heard all of this before."

"The sheriff issued a bounty on him a month ago," the clerk went on, sliding a piece of paper over to me. On it was a picture of Henry the Heatmor, and a bunch of information about him and where he could be found. The bounty was a nice sum of five-thousand. "We've had a lot of business since then, people have been coming in to by Potions and stuff so they can try to nab Henry, but they've had no such luck."

"Hm...five-thousand, huh?" Perhaps I would be up for a rematch. Get some revenge and score some serious money at the same time. Or get killed, but I'll worry about that later.

"Yeah, it's quite a lot, and no one's been able to get him yet. There's talk that the sheriff's going to call in a professional to take care of him sooner or later. He's really getting to be quite a hassle." Then the clerk noticed my thoughtful face. "You're...you're not actually thinking of trying to get him, are you? A rookie trainer wouldn't stand a chance against him."

"Hey, I was able to hold my ground against him the first time I faced him," I protested, even though I didn't really remember. "It shouldn't be too hard."

The clerk shrugged. "Okay, then how are you going to do it?"

"What?"

"He's wanted dead or alive. Are you going to capture him, or kill him?"

"Um..." I don't think I could kill a living being. "Capture?"

"If that's your plan, then you'll need some Pokéballs. A lot of them. And, since you said you couldn't afford a Super Potion, then I doubt you'll have a lot," said the clerk, with a little smirk on his face. Damn, this guy is smart. "However...I happen to have plenty of them on hand. Maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement."

"Maybe we can. But just so you know, I'm not prostituting myself out for Pokéballs."

The clerk shook his head. "That's...that's not what I had in mind."

"What do you want, then?"

"I want to help you capture the Heatmor."

"Really? You're just going to give me stuff, and the only thing that you want in return is to help face a homicidal Heatmor in a fight that you may or may not survive?" This guy is nuts. "Why?"

"Because, this job sucks." He motioned at the store around him. "I had to take this job because my mom wouldn't quit yapping at me to get out of the house and do something. And I always wanted to go out on a journey, but never had the money to start. Twenty-five hundred bucks would be a great start."

"Oh, and you get half the money? You never mentioned that part."

He smiled. "Well, naturally, if we become partners, we'll split the reward."

I thought about it. On the down side, I had to split a large amount of money. Oh, and I might die. I need to thought that in there. On the plus side, I could nab Henry, adding a powerful Pokémon to my team for the tournament, get twenty-five hundred bucks richer, and get some revenge. Yeah, I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Except for that dying part. But again, I worry about that later.

"And...and your boss is okay with you just giving away Pokéballs like that?"

"Eh, probably not. But if everything goes according to plan, then I'll be far away from here when he finds out about it."

"...I like the way you think."

"Thanks." He jumped over the counter in one swift motion and held out his hand. "My name is Beckett. Beckett Ambrose. And you are?"

"I'm...I'm Alyssa." I shook his hand. He has soft hands for a guy. "So...um...when are we going to catch Henry?"

Beckett shrugged. "Eh, probably tonight. We'll catch him while he's sleeping. Pokémon are usually easier to catch while they're sleeping." He reached over the counter and pulled out a small plastic grocery bag. "Here, you can have this. It has some Potions and some Pokéballs in it. You might need them. You have to make sure that you and your Pokémon are ready for tonight."

"Um...yeah, we already did some training," I told him, taking the bag and stuffing it into my backpack, "But I guess some more can't hurt."

"You're probably right," he said, vaulting back over the counter. "Meet me in the Pokémon Center lobby at midnight tonight, and we'll be ready to roll. Okay?"

"Okay."

Hm. I think this is going to go well.

* * *

I take it back. If I ever said that I was smart, I take it back. If I ever said I was dumb, then that's an understatement. Trust me, I think I should've learned by now not to do dumb things.

Right now I'm walking through some tall grass at midnight with some strange boy that I've only know for a few hours in search of a Pokémon that could very well kill me.

Real smart move there, Alyssa. Real smart.

"Where did you run into him?" Beckett whispered, as we stalked through the night. "Maybe you stumbled onto his nest or something."

"It's a few more yards," I replied. "It probably was his nest. He was pretty pissed."

"Alright, lead the way."

I just want to take a moment to say, that as I lead the way, I noticed just how Route 1 looks at night. It's quite interesting. During the day, everything is nice and bright and sunny. During the night, you can't see more than three feet in front of you. I honestly don't see how people say that nature looks better at night. It's hard to see nature at night. And the chirping of the insects! Don't get me started on that! It's so annoying! I think my head might explode from all of the noise they're making.

"Are we there yet?" Beckett asked, several seconds later.

"No, I'll let you know when we're there." I took two more steps then paused. "Okay, we're here." We were back at the pond where the nurse was healing Pokémon. To my surprise, the nurse was still there on the other side of the pond, though she had pitched a tent and appeared to be settling down for the night.

"This?" Beckett looked around. "I don't really see anything that looks remotely nest-like."

"It's down there," I said, pointing down the obscure path where I had first seen Henry. "I saw a large shadow down that path and I went after it. Next thing I know, I'm waking up with a nice burnt face."

"And you somehow make it look good."

"Really? You decided to flirt now? Can't it wait until...gee, I don't know, sometime after we risk our lives facing a killer Pokémon?"

"Eh, you're right." There was a long pause between the two of us. Then Beckett motioned to the path. "Well, ladies first."

I just stared at him. "Oh come on, really? I thought that the tough guys were supposed to go first to protected the ladies."

"Well..." Beckett trailed off. "I'm not exactly that tough. And besides, you have the Pokémon, I don't."

"Jesus, I'm regretting this already." I started down the path. Wait, what did he just say? I whirled around. "You don't have a Pokémon?"

"No, is that a bad thing?"

"Bad? No, that's not bad at all. We're just going up against a fire-breathing killer, and all you have to fight with are your fists. That's not bad at all." I mean, come on, dude. Seriously? To catch a Pokémon, you need a Pokémon. That's how it works.

Beckett cocked his head. "Well, I guess you're right." He bit his lip and looked around at the barely visible surroundings. "Well...I could just sit on the sidelines and throw the Pokéballs." He patted his backpack, which was full of the stolen capsules. "I used to pitch for a softball team when I was little."

"This is _so _not going to end well," I muttered to myself, beneath my face-palm. "You know," I said, looking back up at the store clerk, "you're getting to be less and less useful as time goes on." I turned back toward the path. "You better not mess this up."

"Well, you seem to be in a grand mood."

"That's just the sleep deprivation talking. I had a nice, long snooze planned for right now."

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's just that..."

"It's just that what?"

Beckett sighed. "It's just that you're a really pretty girl, and I wanted to spend some time with you."

"Okay, and that's another thing. Hold off on the flirting until _after_ we face this Heatmor. Kay?" Don't get me wrong. I like having a boy out there that thinks I'm attractive. He's pretty good looking himself. But his sense of timing is terrible. He'd probably make a fart joke at a funeral.

"I'm sorry, again. You're right," Beckett apologized for the second time. "But, after we fight him, perhaps we could grab some tickets to a late night movie. I hear that the theater is playing-"

"Beckett!"

"Sorry."

Thankfully, he was silent after that. We came out into a clearing. But there was no sign of Henry. "I don't see him," I said, looking around. "Perhaps he's out hunting some people."

"Um...actually, he's right there."

"What?" I looked at where he was pointing, which happened to be at my feet. On the ground lay Henry, fast asleep and completely oblivious to the two humans. However, he was less than a foot from my foot. "Um...okay, we found him," I said, trying to ignore just how close the homicidal Heatmor was to me. "So now what?"

"Hang on." Beckett fumbled for his bag, and pulled out a Pokéball. "Okay, now we're going to catch him. He's asleep, so it shouldn't be so hard, right?"

Famous last words.

Henry's eyes suddenly shot open, and the Heatmor rose to his feet. He did not look happy. He glared at us for several long seconds, making angry grunting noises.

"Oh, um...hi," I said, trying to alleviate the situation. It's not going to work, but hey, A for effort, right? "I'm sorry to bother you while you're sleeping, but uh...my friend and I were walking by and we thought...we thought that you might like to do an...an...an interview! Yeah, and interview, for the local newspaper. You're kinda a celebrity around Midna Town."

"Alyssa, what the hell are you doing?" asked Beckett, slowly taking a step back. He did not want to get roasted alive.

"Shut up," I whispered back to him. "This might work." I turned back to Henry. "So...um...would you be up to answering some questions?" Okay, I think Beckett was right. What the hell am I doing? When I panic, I do dumb things. But I think this dumb takes the cake. Hey, cake!

Henry grunted. He wasn't happy that he had been disturbed. "I'll take that as a yes," I said, also taking a step back. "What are your thoughts on cake? Do you like it? Dislike it? Or you don't really know?"

"Heat!" Henry shot a stream of fire at us. I managed to duck under the flames just in time. I could feel the heat on the back of my head. That was close. Too close.

"New plan!" I shouted, jumping back up to my feet. "Retreat!"

"Way ahead of you!" Beckett replied, scrambling out of the forest.

I ran after him. Behind me, I could hear Henry's footsteps. He wasn't that far behind. I'll admit, it was a little bit terrifying...okay, I was completely scared out of my wits, but that's beside the point. This is not going well, I told myself. I thought it would've gone off without a problem, but now, things can't get any worse.

Then I tripped.

"Damn!" I lashed my hands out, trying to find something to grab onto. But there was nothing and I landed face first in the dirt. Things had just gotten worse. "Ow," I groaned, pushing myself to my knees. "That hurt."

"Alyssa, behind you!"

I turned my head. Henry the homicidal Heatmor was standing over me, with a small fire coming out of his mouth. Remember when I said I would worry about dying at a later time? I think this is that later time.

Henry growled in rage, and brought one of his large hands back, preparing to strike. Then a small object hit him in the chest, and sucked him into it.

"Come on, Alyssa!" Beckett shouted, reaching for another Pokéball. "He'll break out of that without a problem!"

You don't need to tell me twice. I jumped back onto my feet and took off. "Nice throw," I said, as I caught up to Beckett. I heard the Pokéball breaking and the Heatmor growl in even more rage. "But...next time can you find a way to keep him inside of it?"

"He's too strong. You need to weaken him first."

Oh right. That's the second most important thing when trying to catch a Pokémon. Weakening it. "Um..." I stopped running and looked back. Henry was slowly coming at us, ready to slaughter us. Did I really want to pit my Alice and Prescott against that?

"Oh, what the hell?" I said, throwing my two Pokéballs. Thinking back, that probably wasn't the smartest move I've ever made. I hadn't even told them about this little rematch with Henry. They probably wouldn't have been excited about that.

Alice and Prescott appeared on the ground, and looked around. Then Alice let out a very loud squeal. I'm guessing that she just noticed the large Heatmor. Prescott just flicked his tail and narrowed his eyes. I could see the fear in his eyes, but he wasn't going to let it show.

"Alright you guys, we're going to take this mean son of a bitch down," I said. "Alice, use Confusion. Prescott...do...do you have it in you to pull off a Thunder Wave?"

Sparks formed at Prescott's cheeks, but they fizzled out. He looked back at me and shook his head sadly. "Pika..."

Okay, so electricity is a no-go. "Eh...then just remain on standby, okay?" Prescott didn't really have any ranged attacks, his only good move was Quick Attack, and I didn't want him to get that close to the Heatmor unless he absolutely had to. "Alice, how's that Confusion coming?

"Bulb..." Alice sighed and her eyes glowed purple. A purple aura formed around Henry the Heatmor, and then collasped in on itself, injuring the Pokémon. Henry grunted in pain, but he didn't appear to have taken much damage.

Yeah, this isn't going according to plan.

"Alice, hit him with another Confusion! Prescott, get really for a Quick Attack! Beckett get a Pokéball ready!"

"Bulb!"

"Pika!"

"Got it."

Alice struck Henry with another Psychic attack, and the Heatmor stumbled back a foot or two. Looks like he took more damage this time than the last. "Hit him while he's stunned!" I ordered to Prescott, who nodded and took off like a bolt of lightning. Things seemed to be going well.

It was right about here where things went wrong. Henry lashed out with his arm, slamming Prescott out of the air. "Pika!" Prescott hit the ground hard and rolled several feet before he stopped. "Pika..." he muttered, trying to stand up. His legs gave out under him. "Pi..."

"Prescott!" I clenched my fists. That was fast. Way too fast. He hadn't even landed a hit on the Heatmor. Maybe I wasn't as ready for this as I thought. "Alright, come back Prescott." I recalled him to his Pokéball. "Alice, how are you holding up?"

"Bulb..." she replied, nervously looking up at the large fire Pokémon before her. With one Pokémon out of the way, Henry only had one to go before he could take on the humans unopposed. "Bulba bulb..."

"Try another Confusion!" I told her. "Beckett, get that Pokéball ready!"

"It's ready!"

Alice's eyes glew purple, but before she could complete the attack Henry blasted her with a stream of fire.

"Alice!"

"Bulb!" When the flames let up, Alice was sitting there, whimpering. Her body was scorched. She didn't look like she could last another few second against Henry.

"She's burned," Beckett said. "Call her back. She can't stand up to Henry. We need to fall back."

"Okay..." I wasted no time in returning Alice. I couldn't believe it. Both of my Pokémon in less than a full minute. God, I'm a bad trainer.

Beckett threw the Pokéball and Henry was pulled inside. "That probably won't hold him for long. Come on, we need to move! Now!"

* * *

Beckett didn't even wait for me. He just took off without checking to see if I was behind him. But, that's okay. I got out on my own. It wasn't like he was any help, anyway.

The Pokémon Center lobby was empty, save for the night duty nurse, when I reached it. Since it was a quarter after one, I guessed everyone was asleep. Lucky bastards. "Could you...could you please heal my Pokémon?" I asked, placing the two Pokéballs on the counter. I didn't look up at the nurse. I couldn't. I didn't feel very good anymore.

"Sure thing," the nurse said. She sounded quite young. "We'll make sure that that they get the best treatment in all of Midna Town." I figured that that was because this was the only place in Midna Town that professionally healed Pokémon, but I kept that to myself.

The nurse took the Pokéballs and placed them into the machine behind the desk. She pressed several buttons, and the machine buzzed to life, pumping some of that life back into my two Pokémon. "Wonderful machine, that is," she said to me, tapping the side of the healing device. "Saves a lot of time. I don't know how we lived without it."

"Yeah..." I folded my arms on the counter and rested my head on them. Why do I feel so bad? It's because I let Alice and Prescott get hurt, isn't it? I knew that they couldn't take him on, but I put them up against him anyway. Why? Why did I do that?

"You feeling okay?" the nurse asked. "You look like you're upset about something."

"I am."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"You...uh, you want to talk about it?"

"No," I said, barely looking up. "Not really."

The nurse shrugged. "Suit yourself. Sometimes, talking about your problems with someone is the best way to solve them. Keeping your problems to yourself isn't a smart thing to do. That only makes the problem worse." She shot me a look to see if I was paying attention. I wasn't really. I heard what she said, but it was in one ear and out the other. With a sigh, she took my Pokémon from them machine and handed their balls to me.

Ugh...that didn't sound right.

"Thanks." I looked down at the two Pokéballs in my hand. I wanted to let Alice and Prescott out, but I how can I face them after what I did? They're going to hate me. They fought that Heatmor before and lost, and I made them do it again. I'm a horrible trainer. Horrible.

Don't worry, guys. I'll make this up to you. You'll see. Everything will be okay soon enough.

Deep down, though, I don't believe that. I honestly doubt that I'll ever be able to look Alice or Prescott in the eye again. I'm supposed to be their trainer, someone that works with them to make us stronger together, as a team. But I let them down. I thought I would be able to do this, be able to be a trainer, but no. I can't. Things...things are just too crazy right now. Maybe...maybe once everything has-

"Uh...miss?" The nurse was staring at me. "Do you need anything else?"

"Uh..." I was still standing there at the counter. "No...nothing." I closed my hands around the Pokéballs. No, I'm not a wimp. I'm not going to back down from this. Not now. I might be the one that's supposed to bring down the cults. I would be letting the whole region down if I gave up.

I went up to my room, tossed the Pokéballs on the bed-side table, and went to bed.

* * *

**Sorry again for taking so long with these chapters. Writing is just getting harder for me as time goes on. I going to try to get Chapter 8 up by this time next week. But if it takes another month, don't hate me. I'm going through a lot right now.**


	8. Partner

**DarkNightPheonixFire: **Yeah, I've been dealing with a lot recently, some of which are reflected in this chapter, but it's mostly things I've dealt with for a long, long time. So it's kinda my fault for not taking care of it yet.

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark:** Alyssa does seem to have some moments, doesn't she?

**Naruto secret justu:** Here's the next chapter, just over a month later. Anyway, Nora was one of the characters that I just didn't think I could get right, so I'm glad to hear that you like her.

* * *

_Chapter Eight: Partner_

My morning was not that glorious. I woke up on the floor. Apparently, I somehow fell off the bed in my sleep and that didn't wake me up. The shower only had cold water, and both pairs of clothes that I had smelled like dirt and sweat. Seriously, I need to find a washing machine. I put on the slightly damaged jumpsuit top with the burn marks and small holes and pulled on my blue jeans. They were the cleanest.

Oh, and to top it all off, I think my Pokémon are mad at me. I put them up against an opponent that I knew they weren't ready for, and they got beat. Badly. I sighed as I took the Pokéballs off the bedside table. "I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't have done that. I really shouldn't."

Maybe I should let them out before I apologized. You know, that way it wouldn't be pointless. I sat on my knees and released both of my Pokémon from their Pokéballs. Alice and Prescott materialized on the floor in front of me, with a slight look of confusion on their faces. I guess if you were just randomly yanked out of whatever the inside of a Pokéball was and appeared in some random place, you'd be a little confused too.

"Bulb?" Alice looked around the room, before nodding in approval. She'd been in my room before, so she knew where she was.

Prescott, on the other hand, this was his first time in this particular Pokémon Center room. "Pika?" He looked around the room, and his eyes rested on the TV. "Pika!" He jumped on the bed, then over to the dresser where the television sat. With a flick of his tail, the remote flew to the ground, and the Pikachu jumped down next to it.

"Um...okay." I was going to apologize, but it seemed that Prescott was a little more absorbed in something else right now. "There's...there's something that I want to tell the two of you."

"Bulb." Alice shrugged and yawned, then proceeded to curl up in a ball and fall asleep. Meanwhile, Prescott was busy muttering Pikachu curses at the remote as he mashed every button on the remote in an attempt to turn on the TV. Well, every button but the power button, that is.

Well, this was going better than expected. They're acting as if it never even happened...that's a plus, right? "Okay...in that case," I said as I stood up. "How about breakfast?"

Alice immediately bolted up right, with an excited look on her face. Prescott swore one last time and kicked the remote across the floor, and jumped over to Alice's side, with an equally excited look on his face. Apparently, they liked the prospect of food.

What a great trainer-Pokémon relationship we have here. I have something really important to tell them, they take a nap. I mention food, they're captivated. Well, I can't really say anything. I'm the same way.

We went down to the cafeteria, but it was filled to the brim with people going to eat lunch. As it turns out, I slept right through breakfast serving hours again. Anyway, we just went back to the room and snacked on our stale brownies and cold pancakes.

"These are still really good," I said, picking up a third stale brownie. "I might have to make a return to Telnor sometime soon." I'll admit, I was slightly hoarding the brownies for myself while my Pokémon sniffed at the cold pancakes, but in my defense, the brownies are really good and cold pancakes suck.

"Pika!' Prescott quickly inhaled a cold pancake, and then jumped back down to the floor. "Pika piii!" The Pikachu resumed mashing the buttons on the TV remote to no avail.

I smiled at the scene. I don't really know why, but I also felt a hint of sadness. Moments like these weren't going to last forever. Someday, it'll be all over. Time doesn't wait for me. Time doesn't wait for anyone.

"Bring it up here, Prescott," I said, holding my hand out for the remote. "I'll do it for you." My Pikachu picked up the remote in his small hands and gave it to me. As he climbed back on the bed, I pressed the one button that he didn't.

The old TV screen flickered to life, and Prescott eagerly sat with his eyes glued to the television. He was enraptured by the...Viagra commercial. Okay. That's awkward. "Sorry, random TV lady," I said, pressing the channel button, "but I really don't have to worry ED any time soon."

Prescott slightly jumped as the channel changed, but he was still in awe of the TV. I guess he's never seen one before. I feel bad for him. Life without TV...God, I can't even imagine it.

There was a knock on the door. I blinked. "Who would be coming to see me?" Damian? Nora? I don't think anyone knows which room I have. I stood up, tossing the remote to Prescott. "See if you can find something interesting." Three more knocks on the door. "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming. Hang on."

The minute I unlocked the door, it swung open, revealing the darkly dressed teen with blonde hair. Oh, it's Anthony. That makes sense. He got me this room after all. "Um...hi," I said. "What's up?"

"Eh, nothing really," he replied coolly. "I heard that you would be entering in that tournament at the trainer school."

"Yeah...what about it?"

"Can I come in?"

"Um...sure?"

Anthony walked in and picked up the TV remote. Prescott had abandoned it when he found a documentary on Pikachus. "The tournament is quite popular throughout the Torren region, you know." He flipped through several channels, much to Precott's dismay, before landing on a local news station. They were setting up their cameras at the Trainer School, preparing to cover the competition. "It's broadcast to the whole region. People get to see who might have a shot at Champion someday."

"The...the whole region? As in everyone can see it?" This might be a problem.

"Yeah."

"Even the cults?"

Anthony shrugged. "Well, I guess so. I'm sure there's quite a few cultists that watch it. Why?"

"I...I don't think we can do the tournament anymore." If the cults can see it, then it wouldn't be a long shot to imagine that one of the Cult of Darkrai members would be able to recognize me, and then it would be all over. It's best to just remain anonymous, right?

"What? Why not?" Anthony tossed the remote back on the bed, where Prescott was more than happy to turn it back to the Pikachus. "So what if the cults see it? You...you have a problem with the cults, don't you?"

"It's...it's..." Come on, Alyssa. Think of some excuse. Make up something good. I...I don't know. Ergh, come on. "It's..it's a long story..." Well...maybe, just maybe, I could tell him the truth. I sorta trust him.

I guess.

Anthony sat down on the bed. "I have time."

I took a deep breath. Here it comes. The first time that I ever told anyone my secret. "I'm...I was a prisoner in the Cult of Darkrai's cave. I managed to escape. I think they're after me."

He sat in silence for several seconds before nodded. "Well...that explains why you dyed your hair." Anthony stood up and smoothed out his jacket. "Is...is there anything I can do to help?"

Relief. That went well. For now, at least. "N-no...not right now. I'm just trying to get as far away from the cave as I possibly can. You know, just kinda let this all blow over."

"That's not the smartest move." Anthony looked up, and ran his hand through his hair. "Alyssa, I would recommend that you go to the authorities on this. They'll protect you from the cults. And your parents. They'll be glad to know you're okay, right?" Anthony stood up and put his arm around my shoulder. "Come on, let's go call them right now. Let them know you're safe."

I shook my head, trying to make some up an excuse, but none came. Maybe...maybe I should just tell him all of it. He's trustworthy, right? He won't betray me, right? I had already told him part of it, why not the rest? I just need to get it out. Wait...what is that? In the depths of my mind, I could feel it. I was reaching my limit. I was about to have a mental break down. God help me...

"Alyssa? Are you okay?"

"I...I don't know..."

Anthony looked me in the eyes. "Alyssa? Are you okay?"

"I...I don't...I don't know..."

"What's the matter?"

"I don't know..." I clenched my fists. I can't hold it. "I don't know! That's what's the matter!" I sank to my knees. Tears formed in my eyes. "I don't know anything! That's what's the matter!"

"Alyssa?" Anthony crouched next to me. "What-"

"Those bastards took it all!" I pounded my fists on the floor. "Those bastards took everything from me!" Okay, calm down, Alyssa. Calm down... I took several deep breaths, but I couldn't stop. It just felt good to let it all out. "Everything!"

I felt Anthony's arm wrap around my shoulder, and he pulled me into his arms. And I felt better, but only slightly. Tears were flowing down my face. "Alyssa," Anthony said, in a soft and calming voice, "what are you talking about? Who took what from you?"

"The Cult of Darkrai," I blurted out between sobs. "They took...they took my memories..." That moment of sadness was soon taken over by another small fit of anger. I slammed my fists into the floor again. "I don't even know if Alyssa is my real name!"

Anthony remained silent, just holding me. That was probably the right thing to do, since I felt like yelling. If he had said something, I probably would've yelled at him for it, even if he didn't deserve it.

Several minutes passed, I sat in his arms with tears flowing down my cheeks. Prescott and Alice looked at me, surprise written on their faces. "Bulb." Alice jumped off the bed and climbed into my lap. "Bulba!" She had a supportive smile on her face.

"Alice..." I picked her up and hugged her. I held her close while I cried. "Alice."

"Pika pii!" Prescott also clamored up onto me, and I held them both close to me. "Pika pika."

We sat like that for several minutes. Me holding my Pokémon and Anthony holding me. And it was perfect. I sniffed. "Th-thanks, you guys. I...I don't know what happened. Something inside of me just… just snapped."

"It's okay, Alyssa," Anthony said. "It happens to everybody. Sometimes, people have huge problems, and they just can't keep them in their head forever. And then they have to-"

There was a knock on the door. "Um...this is the desk clerk from downstairs. We've had reports of screaming and thumping in here. Is everything okay?"

"Oh...it's nothing. We're fine," Anthony called back. "Just a mental breakdown. Nothing serious." I blinked. Really? He didn't even bother to cover it up?

"Oh..." the clerk sounded confused, but not caring enough to actually investigate. "Well, okay then. Just keep it down next time, alright?"

I felt Anthony's arm slide off of me as the teen stood up. He held his hand out to me. "Are you feeling better, now that you've gotten it all out?"

Prescott and Alice jumped off of me, and I took Anthony's hand and stood up. "I… I guess… Sorry that… that you saw all of that. I couldn't...couldn't take it anymore… You seemed to handle it well."

Anthony smiled. "My girlfriend has a mental breakdown every now and then. I've kinda gotten used to it."

"That's… that's good." Wait...girlfriend? Anthony has a girlfriend? Huh, didn't know that. Wait...why do I feel bad about that? I don't...I don't...forget it.

"I'm sure that someday, you'll be in a much better position than this," Anthony went on, "you've just got to let what you don't know go, and focus on the future. After all, the past doesn't define who you are, it just sets the starting point for who you're going to be."

"...I'm guessing you got that out of some anime?"

"Well, no. But that's not the point," he said. "The point is that you shouldn't bother with trying to remember your past. You just need to...need to focus on making your future a good one. Perhaps your past was bad, and you're blessed to forget it."

"...I think you've stopped being helpful."

"Right, sorry." Anthony scratched the back of his head. "But seriously, if you're still opposed to that tournament, perhaps you should go. You shouldn't let an opportunity like this go to waste."

I shook my head, wiping away the last stray tear. "I'm not going to risk the cults seeing me and coming to get me. They're looking for me."

Anthony nodded. "Right. They're looking for someone who's in hiding. Someone trying to stay _out_ of the public eye. Someone who's on national TV wouldn't be an obvious suspect."

"But they've seen me. They know what I look like."

"Right, but you've changed your hair color since then, and you've gotten a new wardrobe." Anthony reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out his sunglasses. "Just do your hair in a different style, and put these on. You'll be unrecognizable."

"Well..."

* * *

Okay. This is officially stupid. I can't believe I let him talk me into this. I look ridiculous with a ponytail.

Long story short, I finally decided to participate in the tournament. Mainly because I had gone through all of that trouble of making up the lie for Mrs. Bell just to get into the tournament, and thing would look suspicious if I didn't show up. That and my Pokémon had been super-hyped about it, and I would be letting them down to not join.

So Anthony, let me borrow his leather jacket, put his sunglasses on me (and they did a good job of covering up the still-visible burn marks), and did my hair up in a braided ponytail. Seriously, that guy has some skill when it comes to styling hair. Trust me, ladies, the ability to braid a girl's hair is a good quality for a man to have. I changed into my still slightly dirty purple shirt, since my only other option was the jumpsuit shirt that I woke up in, and slipped on Anthony's sunglasses.

I felt like an entirely different person.

But that kinda ended quickly when I remembered that I was still Alyssa who had amnesia. Amnesia is the best buzzkill around. If you want to ruin your day, hit yourself so hard in the head that you forget everything. That'll make your day suck more than a cheap hooker.

Okay, that might've been taking that a little too far. Maybe it should've been 'suck more than a vacuum cleaner', or 'suck more than a black hole', or...you know what, forget it. I already ruined it.

Anyway, disturbing phrases behind, I reached the Trainer's School. Just as I had expected, there were several news trucks outside, some with their reporters talking to the cameras.

Oh, why am I doing this again? This seems like the worst idea ever. I'm supposed to be on the run, not flaunting my face all over the national TV networks. But...but maybe Anthony was right. I do look different. Different enough. I can do this. I took a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing, Alyssa. Steel yourself and enter. What's the worst that can happen?

Wait wait wait. Back that up. I think every time someone asks what can go wrong, everything goes wrong. So let's ask this instead: What's the best that can happen?

As I was saying, the Trainer School was packed with news reporters. The students that were participating in the tournament were taking every chance they could to get on TV. Some of the luckier ones were getting interviews. Hm. I'm going to need to avoid those. Not that I lack faith in Anthony's disgusing abilities, I think I'm just a little camera shy.

"Alyssa? Is that you?"

I whirled around and saw the younger kid standing behind me, looking me up and down. "Oh...hey Damian. S'up?"

Damian just stared at me. "You changed your hair...and now you have some sunglasses...and the jacket...are you trying to look cool or something?"

I smirked. "Who says I'm trying?"

He shrugged. "I hope you're not, because you're failing."

Ergh. I hate smartasses. I folded my arms and sized him up, like two opposing boxers do before a match. He doesn't look that tough, but I didn't know what was in those other two Pokéballs of his. I know about the Delta Charmander. But those other two were wild cards. I would have to be careful.

"So," Damian went on, putting on his own smug smile and folding his arms. "Are you ready for the tournament, Alyssa? I've already checked the match ups. If we both win our first matches, then we'll be going against each other. My team and I have been training for a long time. It's going to take some serious skill to beat us."

"Eh, I don't know," I replied. I could tell that he wanted to do some trash-talking before the match, so I decided to simply ignore it. It's been proven that completely blowing off an opponent's trash-talking rather than trying to top them is actually more effective at breaking their confidence. Okay...I just made that up, but it sounds smart, so I will allow it. "We've done some training. I think we might be able to handle you."

"We'll see," said Damian. "Anyway, Mrs. Bell is waiting for us inside. She's gathering up all the participating trainers off to the side of the arena. Turns out that there's only eight trainers, including us, actually still fighting in the tournament. Several others chickened out. Didn't want to lose on national television or something like that. And then some are positive that some Nora girl is going to win."

Hm. So, there's just eight people as opposed to the easily fifteen-plus that I would've had to deal with before? Interesting. I'm no math major, but I would say that definitely increases my chances.

Damian led me into the Trainer School, and Mrs. Bell waved us over to the side of the arena. The other six participants were already there. Three were unfamiliar, and I knew one as that depressed kid that was sitting by the pond when I first headed up to the Trainer School. I recognized the other two as Alex and Nora.

Nora. With any luck, I'd be out before I had to face her. From what I can tell, she's super strong, and she always wins these tournaments. She has that Celebi thing tucked away somewhere, too. I don't think that I could beat her. Second place is still good, right?

Damian and I took the last two empty seats, and Mrs. Bell began directing some of the camera crews around the battlefield, making sure that they got a good view of the arena, and a better view of her. Once that was done, she made sure she got more than her fair share of face time during seven interviews, during which she said nearly the same thing, as if she was reading off of a script.

A small crowd began to trickle in, and I saw Anthony walk in. He smiled and waved at me and took a back seat. Dammit, he's here. Now I can't lose. I don't want to look like a...wait, why do I feel like this? I don't feel right…

Unfortunately, my thoughts were cut off when Mrs. Bell jumped up onto the battlefield and held up a mic. "Ladies and gentleman, I would like to welcome you to the monthly Midna Town Trainer School Tournament!"

There was a little applause. Not deafening, but still a decent amount. I'm guessing most people are watching this from the comfort of their own homes. I would rather do that too...if I knew were my own home was.

"Today, we have several talented trainers participating," Mrs. Bell went on, motioning to the eight of us just sitting on the sidelines, silently praying to whatever deity would listen that we all wouldn't look like idiots on TV. "Our reigning champion, Nora, is also here and ready to hold on to her title!"

Nora blushed and avoided looking directly at the cameras as they all swiveled to get a good shot of her. "Um...yeah. It's, uh, great to be here." She sounded really excited about this.

Mrs. Bell motioned for Nora to join her on the battlefield, but Nora shook her head. "Come on, Nora, come on up." Rolling her eyes, Nora stood up and climbed onto the arena. Mrs. Bell put her arm around her and went back to looking right into the cameras.

"Nora here is one of my greatest success," said the teacher. "I taught her everything I know, and she's taken all of that and become one of the best trainers that has ever graduated from this school. She is my star pupil, and guaranteed to excel in her trainer career, possibly making it all the way to the Pokémon League."

Nora went back to her seat, and Mrs. Bell went on, motioning to the rest of us. "Joining us here we have two new trainers, Damian from Telnor Town, and Alyssa from the Hoenn region. They still seem a little rough around the edges, but we're really looking forward to seeing how they do." She smiled. "Probably not as well as Nora, though." She laughed to herself. What a bitch.

Mrs. Bell motioned to the screen on the wall behind her. "Well, then. With out further ado, let's see the match-ups." She pressed a button on a remote, and the screen came to life, displaying eight names, each one paired with another.

I did a quick scan for my name which just so happened to be the second one down. Apparently, my first opponent was someone named Martin. Damian was going up against a younger boy named Toby, while Alex and Nora were going head to head.

"The first battle will be Martin Blake against Alyssa Jones," Mrs. Bell announced, motioning for me and the other guy to come up to the field. "Let's get this show on the road, what do you say?"

There was more applause this time, and I sat there, looking over at this Martin kid. It was that depressed kid that had been sitting by the pond. He just sighed and stood up, shooting me a quick look, and then climbed onto the battlefield. I sat there for a few more seconds, before finally finding the courage to go up.

I took up position on the opposite side of the field, and Mrs. Bell stepped up to a smaller raised platform, the referee's stand. "Martin, Alyssa, are you two ready?"

Martin was staring down at his shoes. He shrugged a little. "Y-yeah," he said, shuffling his left shoe a little. "I guess so." Mrs. Bell shot him a look. "I-I mean, yes. I'm r-ready."

Mrs. Bell turned to me. I brushed a stray strand of hair out of my still slightly scorched eyes, and adjusted the sunglasses. "I'm good."

"Then will both trainers send out their first Pokémon?"

Martin slowly pulled out a Pokéball, and tossed it. A small beaver-like Pokémon appeared on the field, looking slightly confused and detached. Hm. A Bidoof. Alice would be a little bit over kill, so I'll let Prescott deal with this. I threw out his Pokéball, and my Pikachu appeared on the field.

"Alright, it appears that Martin has chosen Bidoof, while Alyssa has chosen Pikachu!" Mrs. Bell announced. "This will be a one on one battle, last Pokémon standing is the winner, are we clear?" One on one? Crap, should've gone with Alice. No wait, I have faith in Prescott.

"Um...yeah."

"Sure."

Mrs. Bell shook her head sadly, and then waved a little flag. "Then let the battle begin!"

"Okay, Prescott, start off with a Quick Attack!" I ordered, pointing at the opposing Bidoof. Prescott complied. He took off like a shot, and tackled the Bidoof before it had a chance to react. The force of the impact knocked the Bidoof onto its back, while Prescott landed on his feet. "Nice shot, Prescott," I said, as he ran back over to my side.

He smiled. "Pika."

The Bidoof struggled to get back on his feet. Once he was upright, his trainer issued an attack. "Biddy...use, um...try a Bite?" The Bidoof shared a quick look of complete lack of self confidence with his trainer, before turning back to Prescott and putting on a brave face. The beaver bared his teeth and rushed forward.

Prescott remained calm. He didn't even flinch as the Bidoof came running at him. When the Bidoof was in range, he made his move. "Pika!" The Pikachu jumped up, spun around in the air, and slammed his tail right into his opponent's face. The Bidoof, once again, found himself face-first on the ground.

Ooh, now that was impressive. "Again...nice shot, Prescott," I said, feeling some new sense of pride welling up in me. Don't get me wrong, I believe in Prescott. But I just haven't seen him do this well before. The poor Bidoof was on the ground, nearly out, but my Pikachu was still ready to go. Hadn't take a hit.

"Okay, Prescott, finish it off with another Quick Attack!" Prescott turned and gave me a thumbs-up with his stubby little fingers, before clenching them into fists, and preparing his attack. Then he took off, nothing more than a quick blur of yellow. He slammed into the side of the fallen Bidoof, hitting it hard. Yeah...I don't think the beaver's getting up from this one.

I was proven correct a few seconds later. Mrs. Bell waved her little flag. "Bidoof is unable to battle!" she shouted, after the beaver failed to stand back up. "Pikachu is the winner!" Mrs. Bell hopped off of her referee's stand and ran over to me, grabbing my hand and holding it up in the air. "The winner is Alyssa!"

That was fast.

The crowd went nuts. Okay, not really. There were just a few claps, but hey, they were clapping for me and Prescott. And that's what's important.

Mrs. Bell pushed her microphone into my face. "Well, Miss Jones, you just won your first match in the tournament. How does that make you feel?"

"Um...good?"

"How did you feel about your opponent? A pushover?"

"I, uh..." I saw the Martin kid as he recalled his Bidoof, and slowly climbed off the arena. He looked back at me, and then smiled a fake smile, before walking out of the School. "He was, uh, okay, I guess," I replied, not wanting to hurt his feelings. Something about him told me that they had been hurt time and time again.

"Yes, that's great!" Mrs. Bell said, even though I don't think she cared either way. "Well, congratulations, Mrs. Jones! You're advancing to the next round of the tournament!" she patted me on the back and escorted me off the arena. "Why don't you take some time and get some rest before your next match?"

"Yeah...I think I'll do that."

* * *

"You did awesome out there, Prescott," I said to the Pikachu hitching a ride on my shoulder. "To be honest, I thought you would've had a little more trouble than that, but you did really well!"

He smiled. "Pika pii!"

The Pokémon Center was unnaturally empty. At first, I thought that everyone was at the tournament, but then I remembered that there were only eight trainers participating, and a very small audience. So...where did everyone go?

Eh, who cares? At least I don't have to wait in line.

Prescott was in and out of the nurse's care in under a minute. He hadn't taken a hit during the battle, so the really was no reason to do the entire healing process with him. The nurse just checked him over really quickly, and then when she was satisfied that he was ready to fight again, handed his PokéBall back to me.

"Thank you," I said, talking the red and white sphere. "Oh, and if you don't mind my asking, where did everyone go? This place is usually booming with people."

The nurse shrugged. "I don't know." She wiped her hands on her apron. "My best guess is that they're out looking for that Heatmor. Reward's gone up to 10,000."

10,000? I could almost buy my own ship for that. Wait, what? "They increased the reward? What did Henry do this time?"

"I don't know. You should ask the sheriff once he gets back."

I shrugged. That Heatmor certainly seemed to get himself in a lot of trouble, but I kinda felt bad for him. The world seemed against him. A lot of people wanted him dead. They were hunting him down.

Sorta like the Cult of Darkrai hunting me down. They probably wanted me dead, too. And, if things came to the worst, I would probably kill someone to protect myself. Wait, am I actually comparing myself to this flaming monster that burned my eyes?

I shook my head. Just don't think about that right now. You'll just make things worse. So I decided to head back to the Trainer School. Then I saw the one other person in the Pokémon Center. It was that Martin kid.

He was sitting in the back corner, his Bidoof asleep in his lap. He was watching me, and when I noticed him, he looked away, pretending to me looking at something on the wall. I walked over. "Hey, what's up?" I said, awkwardly. "How is your Bidoof doing?"

Martin blinked. I don't think he expected me to come over here. "Oh, um, Biddy's...Biddy's doing fine. He didn't get seriously hurt in the battle." He pushed his glasses up. "How...how is your Pikachu? I assume he's doing fine?"

I sat down in the adjacent chair. "Yeah, Prescott's fine. He's more than fine. He's really excited up that he actually won a battle." The Pikachu in question smiled and nodded from my shoulder, giving Martin a thumbs-up. "I haven't seen him this happy in...well, forever."

"Yeah." Martin smiled, and I think it was real this time. "He looks really happy. It's been a while since I've seen Biddy happy." He rubbed his Bidoof between the ears. "He's always either sad, or just content. I don't think I've seen him smile in months."

I blinked. Not smiling for months. That sucks. "Do...do you know why he's sad?"

He nodded. "Unfortunately, I do."

Unfortunately? Wouldn't knowing what makes your Pokémon sad a good thing? You know, that way you can fix it."If you don't mind my asking, what is it? You know, because I might be able to help, or something."

Martin lowered his head. "It's me."

"What?"

"You know how they say that Pokémon start taking after their trainers after a while of traveling with each other?" He asked. I nodded. "Well...I haven't...it's been...I just haven't been happy in a while." He looked up, but avoided eye-contact. "I'm just dealing with a lot right now."

"You, uh, you want to talk about it?"

He shrugged. "I probably should, but I just don't know how to say it, even though I've been planning it out for a long time." With a sigh, Martin rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. "I guess...I guess I could start with a question, if you don't mind."

"Shoot."

"Have...have you..." He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. He was having a hard trying to figure out the words, I think. "Have you ever fallen in love?" he asked. "Like, there's someone that you think that you can't live without? Someone you'd be willing to die for?"

"Um..." I wasn't expecting _that_ question. In fact, it was a really good question. I don't think I've fallen in love before. At least, not that I can remember. The first thing that I thought of when it came to love was Anthony, but I...oh God. I don't have feelings for him, do I? Oh God, I hope not. I really don't want to deal with that romance shit right now. "I don't think so," I finally answered. "Why? Have you?"

"Well..." Martin ran his hand through his messy brown hair, before slowly nodding. "There's…there's this girl in Helios City. Karen. We were friends for a long time, and then...then I moved all the way out here, to Midna Town. I haven't seen her in a while. I got in touch with her a few months ago, via email, and I think I just fucked things up worse because of that."

Oh, great. I attempted searching my mind for the right thing to say. "Well, maybe it's just time to move on," I said, putting as much sympathy in my voice as I could. "Maybe things between you and her just weren't mean to be. Maybe you need to find someone new."

Martin shook his head. "No, it's not that easy. I've had these feelings for her for _years_. She's in my thoughts all the time." He paused, and sighed. "There have been times that I lost sleep because… because I was scared of my dreams. I...I didn't want to see the two of us together and it not be real."

Well...that got dark fast. Screw the light story mode.

The kid stuck a hand under his glasses, and wiped away a newly-formed tear. "I just can't get her out of my head, and I have no idea what to do. I just want a chance to talk to her. To see her again and maybe set things straight."

"Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll get your chance. Just give it some time." Oh...I hope that's the right thing to say. I really don't like being put in situations like this.

"I won't get my chance as long as I'm stuck here," he said, shaking his head. Then he looked up at me. "You...you wouldn't happen to be going to Helios City anytime soon...would you?"

"It's on my list of places to go. Why?"

"I...I don't want to ask, but...but I don't suppose I could tag along, could I? I mean, just to Helios. I know that it's a long way, but… I'm not that good of a trainer. I'll never make it alone." Martin wiped his nose on his sleeve. "It's just all my other friends have already left or they don't care, and you're the first person that I feel like I can talk to. Everyone else is always making fun of me and stuff."

Hm. I never thought about traveling with someone before. I mean, Anthony and Damian popped up every now and then, but I was usually on my own, with my Pokémon, most of the time. On the plus side, things will get less lonely. And on the minus side, I would be putting him in the cross-hairs of the Cult of Darkrai.

"It's...it's okay if you don't want me to come along," he said, after I didn't answer. "I...I just thought that this would be my one chance to finally settle things. And Biddy and I can't get all the way over to Helios alone."

"Well..." Okay, Al, screw it. You know that you're too nice of a person to say no to a poor soul like this. He just wants to settle some things with a girl he likes. You know the golden rule. Do unto others and all that jazz. If I were in his shoes, then I'd want someone to help me. "I guess it's okay if we travel together. I really could use the company."

Martin lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really? Thanks. It means a lot. It...it really does." He shook his Bidoof, which grumpily woke up and jumped to floor. "I just have some things to get from home, and then I'll be ready to go." He went to the door, but puased before going out. "It's Alyssa, right?"

"Yes. And you're Martin, right?" I knew for a fact. But I said it anyway.

"Yeah." He smiled. "Thanks, Alyssa. I wish there was a way I could make it up to you, but I don't think I can." Then he left.

Several seconds of silence passed before I looked up at Prescott, who was calmly sitting on my shoulder, taking in the scenes around him. "Prescott," I said, catching the Pikachu's attention. "I hope we're not getting in over our heads with this. What do I do if things get out of hand?"

He shrugged. "Pika!"

I smiled and rubbed his head. "Yeah, you're right. I'll do that."

* * *

_**Whew. Sorry about taking so long on this. I was gone for a week, and then right after I got back, the 1.1 update for Insurgence was released, which added game play up to the 6th Gym. Played through that, and I must say, we've got some interesting stuff ahead of us here. One of the newer features is the option to choose light or dark story modes. I think you can guess which route this story is going.**_

_**Anyway, I've had this chapter done for a few days, but I held off so I could get some progress into Chapter 9. I'm about a third of the way done with that, so hopefully it won't be another month before it's up. Though, school starts back tomorrow (fuck) and that's probably going to hamper my time to write.**_

_**Parting Question: Do you think that the pacing of this story is too slow? We're about to hit 50,000 words (full novels are about 50k-100k) and we haven't even set foot on the second route.**_


	9. Victories

**DanelerH****: **I know the types of stories that you're talking about. Some of my previous stories were like that. But I've learned from them, and I'll hopefully not do anything like that in this story. Anyway, I'm glad you like this story!

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark****: **Yep. Dark Mode. Wouldn't have it any other way. While the story itself isn't going to be completely dark, it's going to have it's moments. And yeah, I'll agree it's a bit slow. I'm going to try to pick up the pace a little.

**Magicanus****: **Yeah, the rivals in Insurgence always seem to have good Pokémon that you can't get until later. I'd cut Nora a little slack, since we don't really know what she was up to before the start of the game, but Damian… Anyway, about Anthony's Squirtle. He never actually said that he caught it in Torren, did he? Also, yes, I'll agree that this story is a little slow. I'm going to try to pick it up a little. But, I'm already pretty sure that it's going to break 100 chapters regardless of the pace. Insurgence is a really big game.

* * *

_Chapter Nine: Victories_

"Welcome back everyone!" Mrs. Bell shouted into the microphone, as I climbed back onto the battlefield. Damian was climbing onto the opposite side. "We're just about to start the semi-final round of the Midna Town Trainer School Tournament!" She motioned to me. "This match up will be Alyssa versus Damian! Our two new trainers! How exciting!"

I rolled my eyes. Did someone put something in her coffee or something? Or was she always this lively in front of the cameras?

So far, we were down to four remaining trainers for the Tournament. Me, Damian, Nora, and some random kid. Martin, Alex, and two other random kids had been defeated in their first matches. So right now, things weren't looking that bad for me. I might actually do well in this tournament. If I beat Damian, then I'll be in the finals.

Mrs. Bell climbed onto her referee's stand, getting a nice view over the battlefield. "This will be a two on two match. So choose your Pokémon carefully!"

Heh. I only had two. No choosing necessary. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. We're going to stuck with yes. Damian, on the other hand, picked out two Pokéballs. He looked up at Mrs. Bell and nodded. Alright, looks like it's time to get this show on the road.

"Let the battle begin!"

Damian smirked as he picked his first Pokéball. "Ladies first, Alyssa."

"Prescott, you're up!" My Pikachu jumped off my shoulder and landed on his feet a few feet in front of my feet. "I'm guessing your Thundershock is still a no-go?" His smile quickly faded, and he slowly nodded. "Right, sorry. I just wanted to know." alright, we can still do this without Thundershock.

"Go, Luxio!" Damian tossed out his first Pokémon. Crap, I think we might be in trouble. I wasn't expecting something so...strong. A Shinx, maybe. But not a Luxio. This is going to be a rough fight. "Like I said, ladies first."

"Prescott, Quick Attack!" My Pikachu darted forward, becoming nothing more than a speeding yellow blur. The Luxio watched him incoming and moved to react, but he was too slow. Prescott sprang up into the air at the last minute, tackling the Luxio right in the face.

The force of the impact sent the Luxio to the other side of the arena, where it stood shaking on its legs. "Wow, Prescott," I said, watching as Luxio limped back towards Damian's side. "You never cease to amaze me." What he lacked in Thundershock, he made up for with his Quick Attack.

Damian did not look happy. "Come on, Luxio!" he called out. "Stay in there! You can do it!" The Luxio walked confidently back out onto the field, keeping his head high. "Use Spark!" A quick look of confusion flashed over Luxio's face, but he then formed the small ball of electricity in his mouth and fired it at Prescott.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge it!" Prescott once again bolted off, putting a wide gap in between him and the Spark. The ball of electricity harmlessly exploded on the ground. "Good job!" I shouted, thanking my lucky stars that that had actually worked. "Now hit that Luxio hard!"

"Jump to the side, Luxio!" Damian yelled. Luxio dove to the side and executed a rather badass somersault, which has to be hard with four legs. "Spark!" Luxio stood up right, and fired another ball of pure electric energy at Prescott.

"Look out!"

Prescott turned around in time to take the Spark right between the eyes. "Pika!" He was knocked back, and lay face down on the ground. "Pika..."

"Prescott?" He wasn't down and out, was he? That was an Electric attack. Prescott is an Electric-Type. That shouldn't have done enough damage to take him out...right? "Prescott...are you okay?" The Pikachu looked up at me weakly, before shaking his head and fainting.

"Pikachu is unable to battle!" Mrs. Bell held up her flag on Damian's side of the arena. "The winner is Damian!"

Damn it. I called Prescott back to his Pokéball. That really put a pin in my plan. Now, Alice would have to go up against both Luxio and Damian's Delta Charmander. I don't think she could take them both. She couldn't handle Charmander last time, at she was at full strength then. Now, she'll probably have taken some damage from Luxio.

Oh well. Might as well go down swinging.

I took Alice's Pokéball in my hand and took a deep breath. Alice can't do this. She...she isn't strong enough.

I closed my eyes. I could heard the whispers and murmurs among the crowd. Some other trainers were cheering from the sidelines. They were probably cheering for Damian. Wait...where'd they go? Everything had suddenly gotten dead silent.

* * *

_I cracked an eye open. "What the..." Everything was in black and white. Everything had frozen. Time had just stopped. I could see dust particles hanging suspended in the air, unmoving. "Um...okay. That's new."_

_"Excuse me."_

_That's when my heart stopped. Which is inconvenient, since it was the one thing that wasn't frozen in time. There was a man leaning against the wall behind me. A man dressed completely in a large Darkrai robe. His face was concealed behind the shadow of the hood._

"_Please, do not be afraid," he said. "I just want to talk to you. There are some things that I think I should tell you." That didn't exactly inspire confidence in me, but seeing as time was frozen around us, I didn't think this was a normal run in with a cultist._

"_Who...who are you?"_

"_A friend."_

"_...you're not going to be like that dream girl and make no sense, are you?"_

_The Darkrai Cultist was silent for several seconds, probably frowning at the comment. "I have no idea what you're talking about...so I'm going to say no."_

"_Oh, good. Because she was, like, no help." I paused. "So why are you here..."_

"_Alyssa, I made my presence known because I wanted to tell you that you need to have a little faith in your Pokémon. Especially your Bulbasaur."_

"_I have faith in Alice."_

_He shook his head. "Maybe some, but you need to have much more. What you don't understand is that the two of you are going to do great things together. You just need to trust each other and have faith in each other. If you keep doubting Alice's abilities like you just did...you're going to go no where. But, if you have complete and total faith and trust in her...Alice can, and she will, become strong enough to rival the Legendaries."_

_I blinked. It was a little insulting to have some random stranger tell me that I need to believe in my Pokémon more. And even more so that he had to stop time and all that just to say it. But...but maybe he was right. Maybe I was-_

* * *

"Alyssa!"

My eyes snapped open. There was a sudden rush of sound. Time was back to normal. The color was back, too. Damian was staring at me, his head tilted slightly to the side. "Are you okay, Alyssa? You zoned out there for a few seconds."

I looked around. What the hell had just happened? Strange dream-world-thingy, some random Darkrai Cultist... I thought they were out to get me. Then why...you know what? Forget it. Stranger things have happened in the past few days and I've turned out okay. "Um...yeah, I'm fine. Just...just thinking."

My hand was still tight around Alice's Pokéball. I held it up close to my face. "Alright, girl," I whispered to her. "Give 'em hell." I tossed the ball, and my pink Bulbasaur appeared on the field, ready to rumble. You can do it, Alice. I know you can.

"Luxio, use Bite!" Luxio rushed forward, opening it's jaws wide, preparing to clamp them down on the little Bulbasaur standing against it.

"Alice...Confusion!"

Alice's eyes turned a glowing purple, and a pink aura formed around the opposing Luxio. Damian's Pokémon stopped in its tracks, putting an end to the Bite order. Then the aura attacked. Luxio was brought down to its knees in pain, struggling to stand back up.

"Luxio!" Damian called out, as his Pokémon fell to its side. "Come on, Luxio! You can get back up!" But nope. The Luxio was down and out.

"Luxio is unable to battle! The, um…" Mrs. Bell shot a quizzical look at my Delta Bulbasaur. Obviously she wasn't exactly Delta-savvy. "What is that thing?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's a Bulbasaur. Delta, just so you know."

She wrinkled her nose and tried to hide her disgust, but she failed. "Oh...the winner is, uh, the Bulbasaur… thing."

Delta Pokémon just catch the bad end of things, don't they?

Damian reached for his last Pokéball. Okay, Alyssa, you and Alice can do this. All that's left is that Delta Charmander. It's part Dragon-Type, so the Alice's Fairy-Typing should be really useful here.

"Go, Charmeleon!"

Right. As I expec- Wait, Charmeleon?

Instead of the small, bony Charmander that I remembered, a larger, but still equally bony, Charmeleon stood in front of Damian, raring to go. It was taller and the blue flame on its gray tail was much brighter and larger. It looked so much more damn scary than Charmander.

Hm...that certainly ruins my plans.

Damian smiled at me. "Surprised?"

"Well, not for the reasons you're thinking." I was surprised that I hadn't expected this to happen. I mean, I just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to battling, can I? Cultists, homicidal Heatmors, and now this undead Charmeleon. Awesome. "Okay, Alice, use Fairy Wind!"

Alice summoned up her cute little pink breeze. Charmeleon folded his arms and shrugged it off. Even though it was super-effective, it wasn't strong enough to actually do anything major to him. For the record, that's a very bad sign.

"Shadow Claw!"

Charmeleon raised its claw, which then became coated in a shadowy aura. "Char!" He jumped at Alice, and slashed her with his claw. "Char! Char!" He jumped back to Damian's side, watching Alice squirm in pain on the ground.

I clenched my fists. We are _not _going to lose here. We've come too far to lose now. Or well, from the next town over, but that's beside the point. "Alice, stand up."

She looked up at me, and I saw the tears. Alice was in so much pain from the attack that she was actually tearing up. I bit my lip. "Bulb..." she said, looking at me with worried eyes.

"Stand up, Alice. We're not going down here."

Alice sucked in a breath, and pushed herself back to her feet. She was slightly off balance, but she was still in the fight. That's all I asked.

"Try another Fairy Wind. Give it all you got, Alice."

She looked back at me. "Bulb," she pleaded. She was hurt. Like, really hurt. That Shadow Claw must have done more damage than I thought. She wanted me to pull her out. She didn't think that she could do it. But I knew she could.

"Come on, Alice, you can do it. I believe in you."

Alice paused, and nodded slowly, a more determined look crossing her face. Apparently, that was the jumpstart she needed. Someing having faith in her. Then she turned back to the Charmeleon, and snarled. "Bulba!" She let loose another blast of the Fairy Wind.

This time, Charmeleon was visibly affected. He dropped to one knee, and threw up one hand to protect his face. But once the wind was over, he was back on his feet, still perfectly able to fight. But hey, we're slowly breaking it down.

Damian smirked. He still thought he had the upper hand. "Okay, Charmeleon, finish it off with a Shadow Sneak!"

"Char!" Charmeleon lunged forward, seemingly coated in the shadow aura. He was moving really fast, nearly as fast as Prescott's Quick Attack. Nearly. Charmeleon tackled the small Bulbasaur, mauling her with shadow energy. "Char!" He once again jumped back to Damian's side.

Alice was not in good shape. She had barely been able to take the first attack. Now she was on the ground again, gritting her teeth to bear the pain. "Bulba..."

"You're alright, Alice. You can do it. Give it one more shot. Just one more."

She shook her head. "Bulba..." She was done.

Charmeleon scoffed. "Char."

Alice's head snapped up, glaring at the Charmeleon. "Bulba!" She jumped back up to her feet, and growled loudly. I think that Charmeleon called her a bad word. "Bulba bulb!" She was back in the battle. Well...I guess all it takes to win a fight is a little faith and a lot of pissed off.

Then, Alice started glowing.

And she evolved.

The light faded, and there was now a Delta Ivysaur standing in front of me. "Alice..." I said, blinking in surprise. Wasn't expecting _that _to happen. Not that I'm complaining. "You evolved!" Now I think we might have a better chance of winning.

Damian wasn't exactly thrilled about this new development. "What? She evolved?" He huffed. "Charmeleon, finish it off! Shadow Claw!" Charmeleon swiped at Alice again, but this time the newly-evolved Ivysaur ducked under the claws. Her eyes glowed pink, and she called forth another one of the Fairy Winds, this time much faster and much stronger. It nailed Charmeleon right under the chin.

"Char!" Charmeleon was knocked back to Damian's side this time. He landed flat on his bony back. "Char..." He shook his head, and jumped back to his feet. He was not going to go down easily. "Char!" Without waiting for a command, he cloaked himself in the shadow aura, and blasted forward, this time much faster than Prescott's Quick Attack.

"Alice, look out!"

The Delta Ivysaur stood her ground, forming yet another Fairy Wind. Charmeleon was blasted by the wind as he charged at her, slowing his pace and causing him to growl in pain. "Saur!" Alice shouted, giving the wind all she had. And that was too much for the Delta Charmeleon.

Charmeleon dropped to his knees. "Char..." He fell face forward, and lay unmoving.

Several seconds passed, and Charmeleon stayed down.

Mrs. Bell waved the flag on my side of the arena. "Charmeleon is unable to battle. The winner is the Bulb...uh, Ivysaur!" There was another round of applause, but among them was one loud cheer. That's an improvement. My mind was still processing the events.

Realization in 3… 2… 1…

Holy hell? We actually did it? We beat Damian? Sweet. "Nice job, Alice!" I said, holding my arms out to her. She ran and jumped into my embrace. "Oh, crap," I said, as soon as I felt her new weight. "You're getting a little bit big for this."

She smiled in my arms. "Bulb!"

"Yeah, I know. You did- Wait. Bulb? I thought you were an Ivysaur now."

Alice blinked, the grumbled. "Saur….

"Hey, nice fight." Damian walked over and held his hand out to me. "I honestly thought that we were going to beat you again, but I guess some things happen that no one really expects."

"Yeah," I said, standing up and shaking his hand. "I never thought that Alice would've evolved right then. I honestly thought you had me there."

"Yeah, so did I," he said, with a weak smile. "Well, you beat me. You know what that means, right?"

"What?"

"You're going up against Nora."

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. "Right. I'm not too worried. I think I can take her."

Damian shrugged as he recalled his fallen Charmeleon. "Eh, I don't know. I've heard that she was really strong. That she's never lost a tournament before. She might give you a run for your money."

"I'm sure she will." I looked over at the green-haired girl, who simply smiled in that evil-sweet way of hers. The same smile she used before she threatened to send me back in time. And I smiled the same smile back. It's on. The final match would be me and Nora. And for some reason, I was really looking forward to it.

* * *

The tournament had taken a two hour break before the final match. Anthony had been nice enough to offer to take me to lunch. We were sitting in a small cafe on a small hill that overlooked the small town. There wasn't much to see, though, other than a few houses, the red-roofed Pokémon Center, and the Trainer School.

We had sat in complete silence for most of the meal. Anthony calmly ate his food and stared at me, a thoughtful look on his face. I was busy stuffing my face with as much food as possible. This is the best I've eaten in a while.

"You know," he said, taking a careful sip of his soda, "about the whole no memories thing, I have a friend that might be able to help you with that."

I blinked, pausing chewing on my hamburger. "Really? How? Who?"

Anthony hesitated, chewing on the tip of his straw. "Well, like your situation, it's complicated. It's actually why I'm here. I'm just trying to find my friend. He ran off again, and this time he went to Torren."

Someone running to Torren? Yeah right. People hate Torren. They're scared of the cults. It'd probably be safer to run and hide in Team Rocket's base.

"Bullcrap," I called. "No one runs away and comes to the one place that's infested with cults that have probably killed more people than you know," I said. "I don't think anyone is that stupid."

"You obviously didn't know him." Anthony smiled to himself. "He always seems to pop up where there's trouble. He's taken on a few evil teams and organizations before."

"Really? Sounds brave. Or stupid. Or both."

Anthony smirked. "You know what they say. Bravery is nine-tenths stupidity." He laughed to himself. "Yeah, back when we were both trainers in Sinnoh, we fought against Team Galactic. Brought them down, too."

"Wow. He sounds like a great trainer."

"That's pretty much an understatement," replied Anthony. "Especially after he took on Cyrus at the Spear Pillar…" He paused, swirling his drink around in the cup. "But… uh, but we don't talk about that anymore."

A trainer this good might do the Torren region some good. Then I had a thought. "Maybe he's the guy from the prophecy. Was he chosen by a Pixie Legendary?" Oh wait, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that… Well, it's Anthony. He's cool.

Anthony stared quizzicaly at me for a moment, before shrugging. "Well, not really. He had some dealings with Mespirit once, but the Legendary that chose him wasn't a pixie."

"What was it, then?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"Well, I have to," I replied. "You're being ambiguous."

He smiled. "I'm being ambiguous because I need to be. This information is a heavily guarded secret. He's a wanted man, you know."

"Oh, right." Someone that took out a large criminal organization would probably be considered a threat by others and wanted dead. "Well, can you at least tell me later? And tell me how he can help with this whole amnesia thing?"

"In all due time, Alyssa," he said, reaching for the check. "In due time."

"Hey, um, can I ask you a question? It's really important."

"Despite the fact that you just did, go ahead."

"Okay, so recently, I decided to team up with this guy we're going to be traveling together," I told him, picking at my remaining french fries with my fork. Wait, why do I have my fork? I don't need a fork. "And, the problem is, you know, the cults are looking for me. I don't want this guy to get in harm's way on account of me."

Anthony nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. Who is it?"

"Remember that Martin guy? From the tournament? It's him."

"I see. Why him?"

I shrugged. "Well, because I'm a nice person that likes to help people. He was all depressed and stuff. There's this girl that he likes in Helios City, he really likes her, he just wants to see her and to talk to her. And well… I'm already going to be passing through Helios City, the Augur himself formally invited me there, so I thought why not?"

"Well," Anthony said, pulling a small wad of a lot of cash and setting it on the table with the check. "So you want to help him, but you don't want to put him in harm's way, right?"

"Right."

"Any ideas on how to do that, Alyssa?"

"Not really. That's why I'm asking you."

He smiled. "Don't worry, you'll figure something out. You're a smart girl." Anthony looked at his watch. "Wow, time sure does seem to fly. It's almost time for your match against Nora. You should probably get ready for that."

Already? That didn't seem like two hours. And I was hoping to get a strawberry smoothie before the finals. With a sigh, I stood up and brushed the stray salt from my shirt. "This is going to be a friggin' blast."

"How do you think you're going to do?"

"Eh, I might be able to pull it off. Alice evolved," I replied, holding up her Pokéball. "But I don't really know what Pokémon Nora is using, so… But we'll do just fine. I believe in my Pokémon. They can pull it off."

"That's good." Anthony then paused, and shot me a weird look. "By the way, you have yourself a fan among the crowd. Both times that you won, he stood up and cheered. Brown hair, brown eyes, you know him?"

I thought about it. "I don't think so…"

"He wears a PokéMart apron."

"Oh, that's Beckett."

"Beckett?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I met him yesterday. We went out last night."

Anthony blinked. "What...like out on a date?"

"Not really...though he did hit on me a few times. We tried to catch Henry again."

"You went up against that Heatmor again?" Anthony shook his head. "Alyssa, you nearly died the first time. What made you want to take him on again?"

I shrugged and smiled weakly. "Well...there was a large amount of money in it, and Henry would be a good addition to the team..." It would've worked out pretty well… you know, unless I got killed and all…

Anthony didn't say anything for a few seconds, then he smiled. "Alyssa, you continue to amaze me. Most people would've already given up on that Heatmor by now. But you… you're sticking to it. If you're planning to go up against him again, take this." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a PokéBall. It looked different from the normal ones. This one was blue with two red lines on top of it.

I took it from him and inspected it. It felt… heavier, than the normal Pokéballs. "I don't think I've ever seen one like this." It looked familiar… it _felt _familiar, but I just couldn't put it together.

"It's a Great Ball," Anthony explained. "It has a higher capture rate than a normal Pokéball, so it might be able to hold Henry in it, the next time you face him."

"Oh… cool. Thanks, Anthony." I tucked it inside my pocket. This was certainly going to be useful. "That's really thoughful."

"No problem. I have hundreds of those." He glanced at his watch again. "Now, we better get moving. You don't want to be late for you match against Nora."

* * *

As I climbed back onto the stage this time, there was a certain feeling of dread in my stomach. This was Nora I was about to fight. She was known around here for being really, really, _really, _strong. I was known around here for getting my face blasted by fire.

Nora was already on the battlefield, hands clasped behind her back, and a small but confident smile on her face. She had that look of the innocent little girl that could completely obliterate anyone and everyone that stood in her way. And right now, I was in her way.

This was not going to go well.

_Note to self,_ I said to myself as I took my position inside of the small square marked for trainers. _Work on getting some more of this thing called self-confidence. You believe in your Pokémon, but do you believe in yourself? Not so much._

"Welcome back, everyone!" Mrs. Bell shouted into the microphone. "We're back here one more time for the finals of the Midna Town Trainer School Tournament!" She motioned to me. "We have one of our newer trainers, Alyssa, taking on our reigning champion, Nora!"

There another small round of cheers, and one person in the back jumped to his feet. "Go Alyssa!"

I rolled my eyes. Beckett.

"This will be a two on two match," Mrs. Bell announced, as she climbed onto her referee's stand. "Ready, ladies?"

Nora nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"Um...sure."

Mrs. Bell waved the flag. "Let the battle begin!"

I whipped out Prescott's Pokéball, and let the Pikachu out. He stood there, yawned, stretched, and then balled up his fists and prepared for the fight. "Pika pii!"

"Go, Trapinch!" Nora released a small, tanish-brown Pokémon. It had a rather large mouth. Hm. That looks like it can hurt. "Trapinch, use Mud Slap!"

"Prescott, Quick Attack!"

Prescott darted towards the Trapinch, jumping to the side as a small wave of mud went past him. "Pika!" He slammed into the side of his opponent. Trapinch recoiled slightly, but looked pretty much unhurt.

"Try another Mud Slap!"

The little ant lion Pokémon slapped the ground, summoning a small wave of mud and launching it at Prescott. My Pikachu tried to jump to the side again, but the mud hit him in the lower chest. "Pika!" he cried out, hitting the ground.

I forgot… he's weak to Ground-Types. Ergh… this might be over sooner than I had hoped. "Okay… hang in there, Prescott. We're still in this… Use Quick Attack again!" Perhaps if Prescott keeps using Quick Attack, he can out-speed the Trapinch. It won't be able to land a hit on him…

But Nora seemed to have other plans. "Use Bite when it gets close, Trapinch!"

Balls. I was going to call Prescott back, but it was too late. He was already directly in front of the Trapinch. Two seconds later, the ant-lion Pokémon was tossing him to the side with out breaking a sweat. Prescott was out cold.

"Pikachu is unable to battle! The winner is Trapinch!"

"That was a cute attempt, Alyssa," Nora smirked as I recalled my Pikachu. "But you're going to need to do much better than that if you want to win."

Cute? "Very funny, Nora," I said, pulling out Alice's Pokéball. "But you've yet to see cute." I really liked that comeback. It seems a little pointless, but Alice is friggin' _adorable, _and she can pack quite a punch. Cute but deadly. It works. I think.

My newly-evolved Ivysaur appeared on the field, already prepared for battle. "Saur!"

"Alice, use Confusion!"

Alice's formed the pink aura thing and slammed it into the Trapinch. The force of the impact knocked the little ant-like Pokémon onto it's back. It squirmed for several seconds, before righting itself.

"Mud Slap!"

"Pinch!" the Trapinch fired another stream of mud towards my Pokémon. Alice closed her eyes and braced herself. The mud hit her, but she shook it off. Looks like she didn't take that much damage from that. That's good.

"Another Confusion!"

This time the Trapinch didn't have much of a chance. It was knocked onto its back again, and this time it didn't struggle to get back upright. It was knocked out.

"Trapinch is unable to battle!" Mrs. Bell announced. "Ivysaur is the winner!"

"That was much better, Alyssa," Nora said, returning her fallen Pokémon. "Much better. Honestly, I didn't think that you would be much of a challenge, but you're proving me wrong." She took out her second Pokéball. "But you'll really need to be good to take this one on."

As the Pokéball flew through the air, I gulped. That was Celebi, wasn't it? If it was, then I was royally screwed. Game, set, match. Checkmate. Owned. The ball hit the ground, and I sucked in a breath of air.

The Pokémon was not Celebi. It was a Bayleef. I face-palmed. Why was I worried? Nora can't use Celebi out in the open. Because of that prophecy and the cults wanting to kill her and all that.

"Alice, Confusion!"

"Bayleef, Magical Leaf!"

The pink aura hit the Bayleef at the same time the glowing leaves hit Alice. Both Pokémon cried out in pain as they were hit, but once the attacks let up, both of them were still standing. Alice was looking a little roughed up, but the Bayleef was just still in good condition. This might be harder than I thought.

"Hit it again, Bayleef!"

"Come on, Alice, Fairy Wind!"

Both attacks hit their intended target, and it was the same result. Bayleef was starting to show signs of damage, while Alice was barely hanging on. "Saur..." she looked over at me.

"Hang in there, Alice, we can do it, right?" I said, silently praying to whatever god would hear me that we actually could do it. "If we can't that's okay too, we made it this far, right?"

"Saur..." Alice nodded and turned back to her opponent. "Saur!" The Delta Ivysaur let out another blast of the Fairy Wind, hitting the Bayleef head on. The attack was so strong that it was actually pushing the Bayleef back a few inches.

And for the first time ever, I saw a bit of concern on Nora's face. And I smirked. Nora was nervous. Even if I lost, I could be happy knowing that I made someone as strong as her nervous. "Bayleef...use another Magical Leaf!"

"Alice! Fairy Wind! Make it a good one this time!"

"Leef!" Bayleef shot out Magical Leaves.

"Saur!" Alice let loose another Fairy Wind.

This time, the pink wind was so strong, that it actually pushed the magical leaves right back at Bayleef. The leaves didn't do that much damage to it, but when combined with the wind, it was enough to drop the Pokémon.

"Leef..." Bayleef fell onto its side, and weakly attempted to stand up. But it gave up and went limp. Fainted. Knocked out.

"Saur!" Once Alice had realized that she'd won, she ran back over to me and jumped into my arms. Saur!"

"You did it!" I said, catching her and pulling her close. "I knew you could!" Oh my God, we beat Nora? This day just keeps getting better and better. Wait… does that mean that I was the champion of the tournament?

"Amazing!" Mrs. Bell jumped off of the referee's stand, and ran over to my side. "It seems that our champion has been toppled! Nora has been beaten! I didn't think that it could be done!" She grabbed my hand, and held it up in the air. I struggled to keep Alice up with just one hand. "Alyssa is our new champion.

Yep. I was the champion. Heck yeah.

"Well, new champion," said Mrs. Bell, as she shoved the microphone into my face. All of the cameras swung around and pointed at me. "Is there anything you want to tell your new fans out there? How does this victory make your feel? Where do you plan to go? What do you plan to do?"

Geez, chill, lady. "Um...to my new fans," I'm sure I don't actually have any. Well, maybe Beckett… "It's...uh, it's nice to meet you. This, uh, this victory makes me feel pretty happy. I didn't think I could beat Nora. She put up a good fight, though. And I think I'm going somewhere. I don't know where. And I don't know what I plan on doing. I think I'm going to wing it. That always works."

Mrs. Bell nodded, but she didn't care. "That's great! I'm glad to see that you put my training to good use! I'm hoping to see more great things out of you in the future!" She went off to do yet another interview with some news network.

Alice had passed out in my arms. All that battling can really tire a Pokémon out. I looked over at Nora. She was holding her Bayleef in her arms, gently rubbing its neck. "Hey, you did pretty good," I said, walking over to her. "I really thought that you had me there for a moment."

The green-haired girl cracked a small smile. "I never once doubted you, Alyssa. I knew that you could beat me." She patted her sleeping Bayleef one more time, and stood up, recalling to its Pokéball. "You know, after… after _you know who_ chose you, I've had my doubts that I could beat you."

"Really?" Nora thought that she couldn't beat me? That's… that's kinda flattering, actually. Because let's face it, I'm a sucky trainer. "That… that sounds really surprising coming from someone of your reputation."

"It certainly does," she agreed. "Out of curiousity, just where are you going next? There's the Gym in Suntouched City, just east of here. The leader, Orion, is a little crazy, he talks to a rock, but he's quite powerful."

Powerful and crazy? Winning combination right there. I shrugged. "That was my plan. I don't really have anything else to do." Nothing else than put a lot of distance between me and the Cult of Darkrai's base, and get strong so I can be able to defend myself against them, should the need arise.

Nora smiled. "Well, that's where I'm heading. I'll see you around Alyssa. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other, given… well, our situation." She waved and walked away. I watched her walk away.

"Well, that's over." I smiled and rubbed Alice's head. "I'm so glad that's over. Come on, let's go get some rest."

* * *

I never felt better about anything than when I was myself again. I smiled into the mirror as I pulled the ponytail that Anthony had made out, letting my hair fall back on my shoulders the way I liked it. Then I ditched his glasses and jacket, leaving them on the bed. I was back to the normal me. Much better.

There was a knock on the door. "Yo, Alyssa, you in there?"

"Oh, yeah. Come on in, Anthony."

The blonde teen walked in, and smiled wide when he saw me. "You did awesome, Alyssa. I knew you could beat Nora." He motioned to his jacket and glasses. "And the disguise worked. None of the cults noticed you."

I scoffed. "We don't know that yet."

Anthony paused, the nodded. "Yeah… I guess not." He collected his jacket, and put it on. He looked back over at me as he zipped it up. "Are you still planning on going after Henry again?"

"Of course. Alice evolved. She should be able to take him now. Why?"

"Well," he slid the glasses over his eyes. "Just a few minutes ago, they brought in another one of Henry's victims. A young girl. Seven years old at the most. She's in really bad shape." He paused again. "I… I don't want the same thing to happen to you."

I bit my lip and looked into my own eyes in the mirror. The scars around them were still present. They were healing, but they were still there. Henry would've killed me. He has no qualms about it. And now this girl might not make it.

"He's been terrorizing these people for a long time," I said. "I've gone up against him twice and stood my ground. Well, at least until I had no other choice. So he knows that I'm not scared of him. I'm going to end his little reign of terror, once and for all."

Anthony slowly smiled, and nodded. "If there's anyone that can do it, it's you, Alyssa. Just… just be careful. I'll let you borrow my Squirtle, my normal one, if you need to. He should help. Water's strong to fire."

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "I don't need any help. This is between me, my Pokémon, and Henry." I took Alice and Prescott's Pokéballs off the table, and stuck them in my pockets. Show time. "Wish me luck!"

* * *

Route 1 still looked the same. Grass, trees, rocks. It was evening, and the sun was just starting to set behind the mountains on the horizon, painting the sky a bright orange. I smiled. Beautiful. I wish every day could be like this.

Well, except for facing against the murderous Pokémon thing. That's hopefully just a one time experience.

Alice walked quietly at my side, while Prescott sat quietly on my shoulder. I had already filled them in on the details of our plan of attack. Prescott was going to use his Quick Attack to keep old Henry on distracted, while Alice hit him hard from a distance. They didn't exactly accept it with open arms. But, after some bribery with the last of the brownies, they were game.

"Okay, so where did we find Henry the last few times?" I asked, mainly to myself. It was dark the last time I found him, and the time before that I couldn't remember. I just remembered seeing him, and then I was waking up with burned eyes.

"Alice," I said, looking down at my Delta Ivysaur, "you're part Pyschic-Type. Can't you use some sort of sensey thing to find him. ESP or something?" Alice shrugged. "You used it back in the Mine, when Prescott ran after that Baltoy? Remember?"

"Saur," she replied. Alice closed her eyes. "Saur…" She moved her head back and forth, scanning the area with her limited abilities. After a few seconds, Alice sighed and shook her head. "Saur."

"Nothing, then?" I bit my lip. This might be harder than I thought.

"Run for your lives!" Three young children ran by as if the devil was on their heels. In fact, he kind of was, because not even two seconds later, out stomped Henry, fire in his eyes.

Huh. So that was easier than I thought.

Henry shot out a stream of fire that caused one of the kids to fall. As the hulking Heatmor stalked toward the kid, I decided it was time to act. "Hey, asshole!" I called out. Henry growled and looked over. "Remember me?"

When he saw me, Henry let out another growl, this time much louder and much more pissed off. Apparently, he didn't like me. The Heatmor began walking straight at me, giving the fallen kid enough time to get up and flee. "Heat!" Flames were caming out of either side of his mouth.

Oh, that doesn't look pleasant.

Prescott jumped off my shoulder and stood between me and the Heatmor. "Pika!" Way to go, Prescott. Taking a stand. Standing up to the bullies.

Henry stopped and looked down at the smaller, yellower Pokémon. He cocked his head to the side, and I think he laughed. Apparently, he found no challenge in Prescott. Henry brought his heavy hand up, and slammed it down on my Pikachu.

Or, at least it would've hit Prescott, if he hadn't zipped out of the way on the power of a Quick Attack. "Pika pii!" Prescott stuck his tongue out at the Heatmor. Then he darted around Henry, coming up behind him. "Pika pii!" Prescott used a third Quick Attack, slamming into Henry's back.

That made Henry even madder, which I thought was nearly impossible. I thought the Heatmor had already reached the Satan-level of anger. It's pretty hard to go down from there. He let out a loud, demonic growl, flames erupting from his mouth.

He whirled around, unleashing a wave of fire at Prescott, and conveniently leaving his back wide open. And I was not about to let such a good opportunity go to waste.

"Alice, Confusion!"

"Saur!" Alice hit Henry with a dose of the pink energy, nailing him right between the shoulders.

Henry staggered forward, before turning towards us again.

I smirked at him. "It's not so fun when you're the one getting beaten up, is it?" I asked/taunted. There was a dark feeling of satisfaction deep inside of me. This Heatmor had hurt and killed people before. I felt good about hurting him.

I shook my head, scattering those thoughts. What was I thinking? That's not like me. "Alice, hit him again!"

Alice blasted Henry with another Confusion, knocking the Heatmor down to one knee. He sat there, breathing heavily, glaring at me. His eyes were daring me to finish this, to take him down. And I don't back down from dares. "Prescott!"

"Pika!"

A quick blur of yellow motion struck Henry in the one knee that was holding him up. "Heat..." Henry growled as he fell to his side, and then rolled on to his back. "...mor..." He was down. But this wasn't over yet.

"Stand down," I told Alice and Prescott. I stood still for several seconds, staring at Henry's fallen form. This was the Pokémon that had taken people from their families. This is the Pokémon that terrorizes young trainers and Pokémon. And here he is, laying in the dirt. Beaten.

I walked up to Henry, pulling the Great Ball that Anthony gave me from my pocket. "You know, Henry, you've been a pain in the ass to a lot of people over the past couple of years. You've even killed some of those people. There's a lot of people that want to see you dead, you know."

He snorted weakly, struggling to crawl back from me.

"But… I'm one of those people that believe in second chances." I held the Great Ball out to him. "I believe that you only did what you did because you felt like you had no other option. So I'm going to give you a choice."

Henry remained silent, his eyes resting on the Great Ball.

"I can leave you here, where some other, less forgiving people will find you. Or, you can come with me. Together, we can fight against the cults. You can redeem yourself, Henry. People won't see you as a murderer, but as a hero." I paused. "A good friend of mine once said that the past doesn't define who you are, but it sets the starting point for who you're going to be. And I think you have the potential to be something great."

"...heat…"

"So, what's it going to be, Henry?"

* * *

The stars were out when I got back to the Midna Town Pokémon Center. Anthony was waiting inside, leaning against the counter, a solemn look on his face. His stuff was sitting next to him. In the back corner sat Martin, with his Bidoof sleeping on his lap. I walked in with a smile. "Hey Anthony!"

He quietly watched as I handed Alice and Prescott's Pokéballs to the nurse. "Could you please heal these for me?" The nurse took them. "Oh, and get this one too." I set the now-occupied Great Ball on the table. Whether Henry wanted to come along with me or not, I threw the Great Ball anyway.

"So..." Anthony stared at the three Pokéballs in the machine. "It's over?"

I nodded. "It's over. He'll probably have some adjustment issues, but once we work through those, I think he's going to do really well."

Anthony grabbed my shoulder and pulled me off to the side. "Alyssa," he said, in a hushed voice. "You should probably leave Midna Town. Tonight. Right now."

I blinked. "Why?"

He sighed. "That girl that Henry attacked… She passed away thirty minutes ago. The sheriff is forming a posse. They're going out to kill Henry."

"But… I caught him. It's all over. They don't have to worry about him any more."

"Try telling that to the girl's parents. Alyssa, these people don't just want Henry gone, they want him dead. The families of the dead need closure. They don't want that Heatmor alive to harm another living being."

"But… he's not going to be a problem any more…"

"That doesn't matter. They want Henry to have a formal trial and then a formal execution. They want justice."

It was a bit to take in. I had just captured the one Pokémon that had been causing this town so much trouble, and if they found out that I had him they were going to take him and kill him. Great. Fuckin' A.

"What… what do I do?" I asked, knot forming in my stomach. Had I really done the right thing?

Anthony stuck his hands in his pockets. "We're just going to up and leave. I've already told your buddy Martin that there was a possibility that it would come to this, so he's ready to go."

"We?"

"I'm going with you. At least, temporarily, that is. Just to make sure that nothing goes wrong."

The nurse waved me over to get my Pokémon. I took a deep breath, and let it out. I can not catch a break, can I? There's always something. "Alright." I went over and retrieved my team, and the nodded to Anthony. "Then let's go."

* * *

**And thus ends chapter 9. I think I could've done better, but we picked up the pace, and I think we progressed quite a bit storyline-wise. Alyssa wins the tournament and finally catches Henry. I always meant for her to, but I always thought that a Heatmor was a little overpowered so early. So I fleshed some things out a little bit, and I think it turned out good.**

**Anyway, here's this chapter's parting question: Beckett. Do you like him, or nah? Would you like to see more of him, or nah?**


	10. Rekt

**Antex – The Legendary Zoroark:** I know. She finally pulled it off. It was a long time coming. But she did it.

**Magicanus:** Yeah, Beckett's going to be one of those characters that just pops up every now and then. I did a lot of thinking during my long time away, and I have a few ideas for him up my sleeve.

**AidanLynches:** Here's the chapter! Sorry for the delay! Life was really kicking me in the face with steel-toed boots. Anyway, I'm glad that you feel that this story gives more love to Insurgence. I honestly didn't think I would reach that level. It makes me feel good inside knowing that I'm doing something right for once.

* * *

_Chapter Ten: Rekt_

I tossed the Great Ball up and down. Despite having to keep Henry hidden for a while, for reasons that are still beyond my belief, it was nice knowing that I had such a strong Pokémon on my side. Not that Alice and Prescott aren't strong or anything. Henry's just... powerful. _Terrifyingly_ powerful.

"Can we stop now?" whined Martin from the back of the group. He dropped to his knees, and his Bidoof flopped down next to him. "We've been walking for hours. And it's like three in the morning. My feet hurt and I'm tired."

Anthony looked back from the front of the group. He stared at Martin for a few seconds, before looking out across the horizon, toward the next town. "Just a few more miles. Then we can rest."

"You said that a few miles ago."

The blonde teen sighed. "Would you be okay if we stopped and rested right now?" He asked, looking over at me. "We're not quite as far away from Midna Town as I'd like, but I think we're probably in the safe zone at this point."

"Yeah," I replied, with an indifferent shrug. "I would be cool with that." But inside, I was thanking every deity that would hear me. I thought Anthony was going to make us walk all the way to Suntouched City in a single go. And it was night and cold and that sucks. "I could keep going for a little while longer, but we can stop if you want to."

Anthony nodded. "In that case, we'll keep going a little while longer."

Oh, shite. Sometimes I just hate myself.

He paused, looking out across the horizon. We were currently standing on top of a hill, which provided a nice view of the surrounding area. "We might even make it all the way to Suntouched." In the distance, across a small mountain range, there was a small patch of fuzzy light. City lights. We were almost there.

And by almost, I mean at least two more hours. Great. I sighed, taking in the view from our vantage point. Torren was really nice... once you got past all the caves. Seriously, there's one on like, every route. WTF, man? I swear, Arceus himself was out to get me when he made this place.

Martin groaned. "If we walk any farther, I'm going to die."

I shot a rather hopeful look over at Anthony. He sighed, and reluctantly nodded. "Okay, fine. We'll set up camp here for the night, or what's left of it, and we'll set out first thing in the morning." He shrugged off his backpack and began pulling out a small tent and his sleeping bag. Martin did the same, only with a renewed energy that comes from knowing that a good long sleep is a few minutes away.

It was only a few seconds later that I didn't have a sleeping bag. Or a tent. Or anything to sleep outdoors with at all. And the ground looked cold, and hard, and uncomfortable. "Hey... guys?" I said, kinda awkwardly. "Are either of you a really good gentleman?"

"What?" Anthony looked up at me, frowning. Then he realized. "No tent, no sleeping bag, right?" he asked, smirk on his face. "Rookie mistake. I would know. I didn't have either on my first night outdoors." The blonde dug his hand into his bag, before pulling out a smaller, less warm-looking blanket. "Alyssa can have my tent. I'll make a fire and sleep outside."

This Anthony guy, he really is a gentleman, isn't he? Shame he's already taken. "Thanks. That's really sweet of you." I gave him a warm, and more than slightly-flirtatious, smile as I sat down a log. Wow, Alyssa, you're really putting the moves on tonight, girl. Then the log rolled back. I fell off with a loud and less-than-flirtatious squeal. And there the moves go. Smooth.

"Yeah, should've mentioned that that log didn't look too stable," Anthony said, as an even larger smirk creased his lips. "But I think you figured that one out on your own."

"Yeah, thanks." I looked over at Martin. He had one of those looks on his face. The one that said that he wanted to laugh because people falling off of logs is pretty damn funny, but also that he didn't want to laugh in case I was hurt. Instead, he gave a weak smile and then quickly went back to what he was doing.

A few minutes later, Anthony had pitched his tent, and let me in. It was small, but still really warm and really comfy. "This is really nice," I said, poking my head out of the flap. "Kinda warm, though. I think I might overheat in this thing."

"Yeah, it's designed for more colder environments than Torren," replied Anthony, striking a match and lighting the fire in the pit. I frowned. When did he make that? He just finished the tent a minute ago. "I got it back in Snowpoint City. I camped out at the lake up there once. Tent saved me from freezing to death."

"I've heard the Sinnoh region was known for being cold," I said, propping myself up on my elbow, peering out of the tent. "Is that true? I don't really know my regions that well." I let Alice and Prescott out of their PokéBalls. They were surprised by the warmth, but quickly curled up with each other and fell asleep. I smiled. That's so cute.

"Well, it is pretty cold," Anthony replied sitting against my unstable log and pulling his blanket over his legs. "Even in the southern areas, below Mt. Coronet. There's this island to the north, though, with the Battle Frontier and Survival Zone, and it's a heck of a lot warmer the than the rest of the region. Kinda like Hoenn."

Martin had finished setting up his tent. He came over and sat cross-legged on the other side of the campfire. "I'll keep an eye on the fire, if you, you know, want to get some sleep or something," he said, rather awkwardly, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I'm not really that tired."

"Oh, really?" I asked. "You seemed pretty tired _before_ we set up camp. That's even why we stopped for the night." The kid looked at the ground, and his face turned red. I think I sounded a little too... condescending?-Is that the right word?- with that statement.

"I didn't say that I was tired for sleep," he said, not looking up. "I... I just wanted to stop walking." Martin sniffed. "I've always had trouble sleeping."

I shot a quick look over to Anthony, who simply shrugged. "That sounds like it sucks," I said, trying to make it sound like I cared more than I did. "Sleep is awesome." It's not that I actually didn't care, it's just that Martin was all depressed over a girl and whatnot. I was abducted by a cult that stole all my memories, and was thrown out into the world with next to nothing, while being hunted and presumably wanted dead by said cult. If we're going to feel sorry for someone, it should be me.

Wow... when did I become that self-centered? Or was I always that self-centered? Damn, I hate not being able to remember things this important to my character.

"It is," Martin replied quietly. He picked at the ground with a twig that he picked up. "I just have a lot on my mind, that's all."

"That girl you like?"

"Yeah." Martin finally looked up, and then shook his head. "But... I don't want to go into that right now. I mean, I just met you guys not that long ago. I don't want to dump all the boring details of my lame, pathetic life on you."

I blinked. His self-esteem meter must have hit rock bottom ages ago. It might have even started at empty. There was a long, awkward silence following Martin's statement. He looked back and forth between me and Anthony, opening his mouth to say something but not saying it. It must be hard to come up with a casual topic after epicly dissing yourself like that.

"Well," Anthony said, finally breaking the silence. "I'm going to try to get some sleep." He propped his head up on his hands, and looked up into the night sky. "If you two are going to stay up, do me a favor and keep the noise to a minimum." He closed his eyes and drifted off.

Martin and I sat there for what seemed to be an eternity. Actually, it was like five minutes, but I thought that an eternity sounded more dramatic. "Hey, Martin," I said, crawling out of the cozy confines of the warm tent. "Just because you just met us doesn't mean that we're not, you know, we're not friends." I stood up and stretched. "If you ever need to talk to someone, you can always talk to me."

"Thanks, but I don't know if you'll understand the situation."

I smirked. "Maybe not that specific situation, but I do have my own problems."

"Not as bad as mine."

"You'd be surprised," I replied with a big smile. Maybe I shouldn't be proud that my life sucks more than his. Just sayin'. "I'm going to go for a little walk," I said, sticking my hands in my pockets. "You mind keeping an eye on the camp, and on our Pokémon while I'm gone?"

Martin nodded. "No problem."

"Thanks." I spun around, and started walking. I had no idea where I was going, but I just needed to get away from the guys for a little bit. You know, have a little bit, of girl time. And by girl time, I mean attempting to get a monster of a Pokémon to obey you.

* * *

I found a nice clearing in the forest, since there always seem to be some convenient clearings when you need them, and I held up the Great Ball, just looking at it. So, the mighty murder fell to a simple blue ball? Nice.

"Okay, here goes nothing." I released the Pokémon inside of the ball. Henry did not look amused. He simply grunted and looked around, unimpressed by the sudden change in scenery. "Hey, I need to have a talk with you. And I prefer not to get blasted in the face by fire again." I rubbed my hand over the scars on my eyes. They were mostly gone now, but still visible. "That was quite rude."

"Heat."

"Yeah yeah, I know I was invading your personal space," I said, taking a shot in the dark at what he had said. I didn't really know what he said. He could've been apologizing for all I know. "But still. You didn't need to go for the face."

"Heat."

"Right, sorry." I sighed, folding my arms. Henry stood there. The anger that was normally in his eyes was much calmer than normal, but it was still there. "Look, I know you're probably not excited about getting captured, but it was for the best. Trust me. There were other people looking for you, and they were going to kill you. I'm pretty sure you don't want that."

He huffed, snorting smoke.

"Don't get that type of attitude with me, mister," I said, sticking my hands on my hips. Stubborn bastard. "Look, I know you probably don't like me, but I get that. I'm kind of a bitch." Whoa, where did that come from? "But I want to be honest with you. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want you to hurt me. I want us to be good friends. Fighting side by side. I just want to ask, what's it going to take for me to earn your trust?"

Henry stared at me for several long seconds. Whether he was contemplating what it would take to earn his trust or just how much he hated me, I'll never know. Eventually he just grunted.

"Henry, you're a good fighter," I told him, attempting to butter him up. Hey, a little flattery never hurts, right. "When you're not killing people, you're actually a good fighter. You have a lot of potential."

He huffed, snorting smoke, again.

"Just know that I have your back, okay?" I asked. "And tell me that you'll have mine. We might not be the best of friends yet, but we're in this together now." Whatever "this" was. A journey, attempting to flee a cult, a quest to find a strawberry smoothie? Hey, we're just winging it at this point. "So let's not get off to a rough start, okay?"

He huffed, snorting smoke, _again._

That was really starting to get old.

"Alright, fine. Maybe you'll like it better in your PokéBall better." Henry just stared at me, completely unfazed. Geez, what's with this guy? Alice and Prescott hated their balls. So I held up the Great Ball and was about to return my Heatmor when I heard the voices.

"Come on, keep moving grunts," said a gruff female voice. Or at least, I think it was a woman. Maybe just a gruff, feminine man. "We need to keep moving, we're almost to the ruins."

"But boss," whined a nasally male voice, "We've been walking for hours. And it's like three in the morning. My feet hurt and I'm tired."

"Stop bitching, maggot," snapped the woman. "You're giving the Abyssal Cult a bad name. Now get off your lazy ass and get moving!"

Abyssal Cult? Weren't they part of the plot to kill the Augur. "Um... yeah," I said, looking over my shoulder. Three silhouettes were moving through the trees. "Perhaps we should head back to camp, Henry. You know, call it a night."

He huffed, snorting smoke.

"Okay, cut that out! I got the point the first time!" I clamped my hand over my mouth when I realized just how loud I had been. Had the cultists heard that? Surely on a quiet night like this anyone nearby could hear me.

Nothing. No cultists came running with their weapons and murderous plans at the ready. So that's a good thing. Except, they were probably up to no good where ever they were going. "Come on, Henry," I said, this time much quieter. "Those we some cultists. They're dangerous. Even more than you."

Henry glared at me. "Heat!" he cried, rearing back and growling deeply. Fire spilled out of the corners of his mouth. Apparently, he didn't like me saying that. The Heatmor spun around and stormed off in the same direction that the cultists had gone.

"No... Henry. I didn't mean that." Someone's got a bit of an ego when it comes to being lethal. I chased after him. "They can hurt you. I don't want you to get hurt!" I grabbed his arm, but he easily shook me off. "Henry... please..."

"Riii!"

Both of us snapped our heads toward the sound. "That sounded like a Riolu," I muttered, amazed by the fact that I actually knew what it was, but not how I knew what it was. "The cultists... they must've been after it..."

"Heat." Henry took off at a full run, breaking through the tree line into another clearing. In this clearing, though, there was a large stone structure, easily centuries old. Old and worn down statues of Lucarios lined the path to the building.

"Henry!" I ran after the Heatmor. What was this stubborn son of a bitch doing? He couldn't take on all of the cultists... could he? I haven't used him in battle since I caught him, so I have no idea what his combat capabilities are.

Standing just outside of the structure were the three cultists, standing around something small and blue. The Riolu, I realized. It was struggling to get up, and every time it stood up, one of the cultists kicked it down.

"Well well well," said the gruff female cultist. "We have you now, Riolu. There's no where to run. There's no where to hide. Your fate is sealed. You will become a valuable asset to the Abyssal Cult."

"Hey, why are we even bothering with this little runt anyway?" asked the same nasally voice from before. "I mean, it's not a Water-Type. As the Abyssal Cult, we kinda have a theme. Water. So why bother with a Fighting-Type?"

The woman sighed. "Because, moron, it'll eventually evolve into a Lucario. Those are pretty powerful regardless of type. And why would the boss refuse a powerful Pokémon? Now come on, give me a hand." She turned back to the Riolu. "It's time that you accept your fate, Riolu. We own you now."

The Riolu looked around. I could see the fear in it's eyes. The poor thing was scared to death. "Riii!" It shouted, desperately searching for someone, or something to come to its aid. "Riii! Riii!"

The gruff woman chuckled. "You just don't get it, do you, Riolu? No one is come to help you. No one cares about you. No one will come rescue you."

"Heat!"

"What the hell?" The cultists snapped their heads up, catching sight of the Heatmor stalking towards them. "What the hell is that? Why is that thing here?"

I sighed. Well, out cover was blown now. Might as well... "We're here to kick your ass and free the Riolu, bitch!" I shouted, coming to Henry's side. "Prepare to get rekt!"

The woman cultist blinked, frowning at me. "To... to get what?"

"Rekt. You know, R-E-K-T. It means that you're about to get completely and utterly destroyed!"

"Do... do you mean wrecked?"

"No. Rekt."

"That's what I said."

"No, you said it with a W. I'm saying with an R.

"... but there's no difference in the pronunciation!"

"Exactly."

"What are you..." The woman cultist shook her head. "That's just... wait, why are we letting this idiot distract us?" She motioned to the two grunts. "Take her out!"

The other cultists looked at each other and snickered. "I'll take her out," said one of them, "if you know what I mean!" They promptly burst into laughter and high-fived. Creeps. They're like a decade older than me.

"My God, do I have to do everything around here?" The woman cultist pulled out a PokéBall. "Well, kid, I hate to say it, but you're going to be the one getting 'rekt'." She tossed the ball, and out came a large crab-lobster thing. "Crawdaunt, use Water Gun, now!"

"Craw!" the Crawdaunt shouted, opening both of its claws. Powerful jets of water blasted out of the open claws and slammed into Henry. And he went down hard.

"Heat!" Henry buckled to one knee, breathing heavily. Perhaps going after the cult that worships Water-Type Pokémon with only a Fire-Type Pokémon was a bad idea after all. I smacked myself in the face. Way to go, dumbass.

"Once more, Crawdaunt!" The second blast of water nailed Henry right in the face. I winced. That looked like it hurt. The Heatmor fell face first to the ground, groaning and moaning.

"Henry!" The fire Pokémon struggled to get up. His arms was shaking under him. "Come on, get up get up get up..." I muttered. But he fell back to the ground. That Crawdaunt was a lot more powerful than it took. That son of a-

"What on earth is going on over here?" a voice shouted. I know that voice. It's the same voice that threatened to send me back in time. "Alyssa?" Nora asked, walking on to the scene. "What are you doing here?" She looked to the cultists. "And what are _you_ doing to that poor Riolu? Can't you see it's scared and terrified?"

"Yeah, kid," the woman cultist snapped. "That's kind of the point with an abduction, don't you think?" She shrugged. "Whatever. You shouldn't have come here, girl. Now I'll have to kill two people today. Not pleasant. But I've done worse."

"Oh... yay," Nora replied, her voice saturated with sarcasm. "What a great day to be me." She eyed the Crawdaunt, which had a terrifying murderous look on its face, then looked over to me. "Alyssa, you wouldn't happen to have a plan to get out of this mess, would you?"

"None that don't involve running away and screaming at the top of our lungs like little girls," I answered. And that was the truth. Perhaps its time not to be the hero for once. Sometimes, being the zero is what you have to do. I recalled the fallen Henry. "So unless that little pink furball decides to intervene, we'll probably screwed." Mew might not have fur, but for some reason I think the name is fitting. If I ever catch it, that's what I'm going to name it.

"Retreat? That's your best plan? Come on, Alyssa. You can do better than that. Remember what I told you in the mine." Nora pulled out one of her PokéBalls. "Let's take a stand and against these terrorists."

"Yeah, about that..." I sheepishly held up the Great Ball. "This was kinda the only Pokémon I had on hand..." I tucked the ball into my pocket. "I'm not going to be much help." Alyssa, you're such a helpful individual.

Nora just stared at me for several minutes, before letting out an agitated sigh. "Why didn't you bring your other Pokémon? And please tell me that it's a good reason."

"They were sleeping..."

"Alyssa, you shouldn't be this unprepared when dealing with cultists."

"Hey! I didn't know that we were going to run into these idiots!" I snapped back, waving at the Abyssal cultists. One of the ones in the back flipped me off. "They just kinda showed up!"

"Okay, fair enough," replied Nora, as she slowly put her PokéBall back in her pocket. "Well... this certainly complicates things. I guess I no choice now." The green-haired girl pulled out a different PokéBall. "I guess I have to use-"

"Krrrr!"

There was a silence. Everyone looked around for the source of the sound. "What was that?" I asked, trying to see through the night. It certianly didn't sound like Mew coming to my rescue this time. "That sounded like a..."

"Krrr!"

A figure jumped from the top of the ruins and landed in between the cultists and the Riolu. "Riii!" the little blue Pokémon called out in glee.

"Oh... well isn't this cute?" The woman cultist huffed at the sight of the new Pokémon. "The mother comes to protect her child. Perfect. We might as well nab this Lucario as well." She turned to her subordinates. "Grunts, take her. Quickly, before she-"

"Krrr!" The Lucario's eyes suddenly began to glow, and then her entire body was encased in a bright white light, lighting up the night.

"What is going on?" I asked/shouted to Nora, covering my still-sensitive eyes with one hand. "It can't be evolving, can it? I thought Lucario was a fully evolved form!"

Nora didn't reply to me, instead talking to herself in awe at the scene. "I... I think this is what they call Mega Evolution..." she said, taking a step forward to get a better look. "I've never seen this happen before!" Then she frowned. "But I thought that..."

The light faded, revealing a rather meancing looking Mega Lucario standing in a heroic pose, protecting her child. And Mommy Lucario did not look to happy. She had that same angry look that Henry had when he burned my face.

It's about to get real.

"Crawdaunt, Hyrdo Pump!" the lead cultist shouted to her Pokémon. The giant crab-lobster thing opened its large claws and let out a huge blast of water. Much larger than what it had used on Henry.

The Lucario didn't even flinch. She snapped her hands up and fired off a huge ball of blue light. The Aura Sphere blew through the Hydro Pump, completely diffusing it. Lucario fired off another one, slamming right into the Crawdaunt's chest. The unconscious Pokémon landed a few feet away from me.

"Suck on that, fish-face," I muttered to the Crawdaunt. "You just got rekt."

The cultists were not particularly happy about this new development. "Retreat!" shouted the lead cultist, "We can't take it on in this form! Fall back!" The other two grunts didn't need to be told twice. They were gone faster than a snowball in Hell. The lead cultist recalled her Crawdaunt and took of after them, narrowly missing the Lucario's next Aura Sphere.

"Now that was awesome," I said.

The Mega Lucario snapped her head towards Nora and I, and raised her hand. Another Aura Sphere began forming.

Okay... not so awesome any more.

"That's not a good sign..." Nora said. "She thinks that we were with the cultists!"

"Riii!" The Riolu tugged at his mother's leg. "Riii!"

"Krrr..." Lucario looked down at her child.

"Riii! Riii!"

"Krrr..." Lucario looked back at us, and the Aura Sphere dissolved. "Krrr!" She growled. The Mega Lucario gave a brief nod before picking up her child and fleeing into the ruins.

I let out the breath that I had been holding. Getting capped by a Mega Lucario would put a damper on this little adventure. "Well... that was close." I looked over at Nora, who was wiping sweat away from her brow with her sleeve. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, smile finally crossing her face again. "But I'm the one that should be asking you if you're okay. I was the one that came to your rescue, after all."

"You? Rescuing me?" I scoffed. "Please, I had that all under control."

We just stared at each other, before bursting into laughter. Me? Having something under control? That's ridiculous.

"Well, I'm just glad that things worked out well," said Nora. "For Riolu and us." She smoothed her skirt. "Do you have a place to stay for the night? I was just about to set up camp."

"Just about to set up camp? It's like three in the morning. I figured you would've already had that taken care of."

Nora shrugged. "Well, I've had to train, you know," She lowered her voice. "I've been training Celebi at night. I can't run the risk of anyone seeing her."

I nodded. Well that makes sense. "Fair enough. But yeah, I've already got a camp. It's just a few minutes walk from here. You can stay with us for the night."

Nora tilted her head. "Us?"

"Me and Anthony and Martin," I said.

"Martin from the school?"

"The same."

Nora frowned. "He's a little weird. Has a lot of girl problems." Then her smile turned into a sly smile. "What about Anthony? Is he cute?"

I felt my face go red. "Well... yeah. He's really awesome." Then I had to fake my smile. "But he's already taken."

"That's such a shame. Is he a nice guy?"

"The nicest. He always seems around to give some advice or just be there for me when I need him. He's like the model boyfriend. I would take twelve of him if I could."

"That sounds nice. I've always wondered what it was like to fall in love," Nora said. "I've had feelings for boys before, but whenever I tried to talk to someone about it, they would just say that it was puppy love, whatever that is. That I needed to be older to really understand what love was."

I shook my head. "That's not even close to being true. I'm not that much older than you, and... and I know what love feels like."

"How old are you, anyway?"

I blinked. Really? That's the question that she had? "Oh... well..." Come to think of it, I don't think I actually know. "Sixteen?" I said. I think I was actually fifteen, but I was willing to add a year, so I would sound more experienced with what we were talking about.

Nora nodded. "That's when they say that love will screw up your life. That any relationships that you have as a teenager are all just big mistakes." She paused, taking in breath. "So... what does love feel like?"

"It's... interesting," I said. "You feel all wierd, and you always want to be around the person. You really want to talk to them, but you don't at the same time. You don't want to run the risks of screwing something up. So you just hang around him and try to be relevant in his life. And sometimes you make mistakes and you fall, and you say that you'll never feel this way for him again, but when he helps you up the cycle just starts again."

"Sounds like love sucks."

"It does. But I wouldn't give it up for anything."

There was a long, awkward pause. I felt better about something. I didn't feel so... weird. I felt like a normal teenage girl talking to one of her normal teenage friends about the normal teenage thing, love. I wasn't a freak any more. And it felt so nice"

"So, this Anthony guy," Nora said, breaking the silence. "You really like him, don't you?"

"Well... he's one of the few guys that I know that I like..." I answered. I didn't actually know that many guys. Jerome, Sylvan, Jaern, Beckett, Martin, Anthony... those were just the ones that I actually remembered since waking up. And I didn't really like any of them except for Anthony. He was nice and kind and sweet and-

"Hey, you okay?" Nora asked. "You kinda phased out there for a second."

"I, uh... yeah. Just thinking."

"Oh." Nora shrugged. "That's the best thing a person can do, right? I mean, it can't do any harm, right." She sighed. "But yeah, if you want me to, I'll crash with you guys. Beats sleeping alone."

"Right this way, then."

* * *

I lead Nora back to our campsite. Anthony and Martin were already asleep, so we spent more than a few minutes sneaking quietly into my tent to avoid waking them. They needed their rest. We walked quite a distance today. It was a small fit, me and Nora in the same tent. But we made it work.

"Good night, Alyssa," Nora said, as she curled up under the small blanket we had to share. "I'll see you in the morning. And thanks for letting me stay here for the night."

"No problem. Good night, Nora." I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I felt so normal today. I wasn't worried about the cults, or the prophecy, or Mew, or the Gym, or my memories, I was just a normal person. For a few minutes, I didn't feel like the screw up that I normally do. I just needed to talk to someone a little more. "Hey... Nora?"

There was no answer.

"Nora?"

Still none. Nora was already asleep. Apparently training Legendary Pokémon late at night drains your energy.

I sighed. I guess I'll have to wait until morning. I hope I don't have another one of those strange dreams again. Those aren't any fun...

* * *

**Well... that took a while. I knew that the long haitus was going to happen. Life's been kicking me in the face for the past couple of months. School, college applications, other projects that I honestly didn't think would take up as much time as they did. So, here I am. And I'm back. Hopefully it won't be much longer until the next chapter. I've been trying to get back into the writing spirit.**

**Also, my goal to pick up the pace is to have at least one story event per chapter, with a few exceptions here and there. So hopefully things will start moving along soon.**

**Anyway, next chapter we'll finally see Suntouched City, and perhaps even meet a new travelling partner, if things go well.**


	11. Suntouched

**AidanLynches:** I glad you're this excited about the story. That means I'm doing something right. Humor is just Alyssa's way of dealing with stress and dangerous situations.

**Jaegothis:** Yeah, there are a few floating around here and there. I know of two others, but they haven't been updated in a long time. Or maybe they have. It's been a while since I've looked into them. And thanks for catching that little error with the quotations marks. I'll fix it soon.

**Antex – The Legendary Zoroark:** I had that chapter sitting on my computer for months, so I figured it was finally about time to buckle down and get it done. And you know what? I agree. This is SO AWESOME!

**Magicanus:** Whoa… you ship Alice and Prescott too? I thought I was all alone. Though, I call it Alcott. And Alyssa's team is based off of my first Insurgence team, with some minor changes. I didn't use a Totodile, so neither will Alyssa. And I am a fan of Fedoro. I haven't seen the all of that series, but I've been doing things like that to my team since I first saw Fedoro. It gives a much better sense of unique-ness to your team.

* * *

_Chapter Eleven: Suntouched_

The morning was perfect. And by perfect, I mean I slept all the way through it. I didn't wake up until one in the afternoon. "Wassup?" I said groggily, crawling out of the tent and falling in a heap just outside of it.

"Well, it's about time you woke up," said a familiar blonde teen. Anthony was sitting on the log that I had fallen off of, eating a granola bar. "Martin and I were beginning to think that you had died in your sleep or something. Or, at least, we would have, if it hadn't been for your snoring."

"Snoring? I don't snore."

"Alyssa, you could've put a Snorlax to shame." He smiled taking another bite. "Big night last night?"

"Huh?" Oh, he must be talking about the cultist thingy I guess Nora told him about that. "Yeah, I'll say."

"You have fun?"

What kind of question was that? They were cultists. They could've _killed _me. But I shrugged. "Well, yeah. It was a blast," I said, in the most sarcastic sense possible. "If I could, I would do that every night."

He snickered. "I didn't know you went that way, Alyssa."

"What?"

"Well, when I woke up this morning, you were sleeping with some other girl in the tent." Anthony shook his head. "You should've told me you were expecting someone. I would've given the two of you some space."

Wait. What? He didn't think that I actually… with _Nora_? She's like ten! Or twelve… thirteen at the most. That's a little young for me. Even if I were into girls. "No, no no no no no," I said, waving my hands. "It wasn't like that. She was just a friend that needed a place for the night."

"I was just kidding, Alyssa," he said, crumbling up the empty wrapper and sticking it in his pocket. I guess he's not one to litter. "I figured there was a good reason. Anyway, your friend took off a few hours ago. Back when the sun was still rising."

I looked up into the sky. The sun appeared to be on its way down. It was in the west. I think. "So… I guess I really slowed us down, then?"

"Eh, not really. Martin and I got in some really good training." Anthony held up his two PokéBalls. "My Wartortles are getting stronger and stronger."

"That's good to know." I finally stood up and stretched. I felt several joints pop. Dear God, that felt good. "Is my hair a mess?"

"Worse than a mess." He pulled a comb from his pocket. "Here."

A few seconds later my hair was less of a wreck than it had been. "Thanks. Got any food?"

Anthony shook his head. "We ate all we had for breakfast. You should've gotten up when you had the chance." He stuck his comb back into his pocket. "So after we pack up the tent and sleeping bags, we'll be ready to set out again.

"Oh, joy."

"You ready for your first Gym battle?" Anthony asked as he took down the tent. "I've heard that Orion is pretty tough, though he does talk to a rock."

Talking to a rock? "Um… is that normal?"

"More normal than you would think."

Oh. Well… great. "So what are Gyms like?" I asked. "You're from Sinnoh, right? You've faced Gyms before."

"That's just the thing," said the blonde teen, as he stamped out the remains of the fire. "Gyms differ from region to region. The ones in Torren are more focused on a theme rather than a single Type, like the rest of the world. Unfortunately, I don't know what Orion's theme is."

So I'm going in blinder than a Zubat. And Zubat don't have eyes, just so you know. "So, just wing it and hope for the best, then?"

"Pretty much."

"Good. That's the one thing that I'm good at."

* * *

The sun was getting close to setting when we finally set foot into Suntouched City. Sadly, you had to go through Cyan Cavern to get to Suntouched. And Cyan Cavern isn't the shortest cave. We spent easily an hour in there. Not my idea of fun. Not anyone's idea of fun. Well, maybe those ruin maniacs. They nuts about anything cave.

Anyway, there were two things about Suntouched Ctiy that I immediately noticed. First was the rather large, and rather golden, statue of that Augur guy we met in Telnor Town. It stood on top of a small hill, overlooking the city. That guy has an ego problem.

The second thing was the second level of the city that stood nearly a hundred feet off the ground supported by pillars that ringed Suntouched City. I could see buildings and what appeared to be a skyscraper on top of it. Seriously? A skyscraper on a platform a hundred feet in the air? Someone probably lost their architect licenses over that one.

But aside from the overly-large statue and the city's second level, Suntouched was pretty much the exact same as Midna Town and Telnor Town. There were trees and flowers, and there was a lot of grass. A couple of houses here and there, and then the Pokémon Center. The same towns, just different layouts.

"Okay, so where to first?" I asked, looking back at the two guys. "We can grab something to eat, or get some rooms, or scout out the Gym or something." I paused, looking around the city. Wait, something was missing. "Um… where's Gym?"

"We're actually just about ten feet to the right of it," Martin replied. "And about a hunrdred below."

Below? I looked up at the second level. "So… it's up there?" I do not like the sound of that. I hate heights. And caves. "Um… perhaps we should come back later… or something."

Anthony scoffed. "What? Are you afraid of heights?"

Of course I am. "Of course not," I said. "I just… do we have to go up there?"

"Do you want a badge?"

Hm. That's a tough one. Should I go really high up and fight someone that I probably wouldn't beat just to win some small piece of metal that I really didn't care for that much, or should I stay here on the nice, solid ground, where I didn't have to worry about really tough Gym Leaders that would steamroll right over my team.

Okay, I think I over-clocked my sarcasm generator on that one.

You know what? Screw it. Badges are shiny. I like shiny things. "Fine. We'll go to the Gym. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get down to the nice safe ground." I sighed, and looked up toward the second level again. That was really high. "So how do we get up?" I asked. "And if the only way up there is stairs, we're leaving. Screw the badge until I have a Charizard or a Salamence or something."

"Actually, there aren't any stairs," said Martin, looking down at the map. Hm. Was it me, or was he sounding slightly more confident than he did yesterday? I guess he's warming up to us. "You just have to take the fan."

"The fan?" Oh God, do I even want to know? "What's the fan?"

Martin pointed toward a long, tall, glass tube running from the ground to the second level. "They have a high powered fan strong enough to lift a person all the way up there."

A second level of a city and the only way to get up was a fan? Who's idea was this? Were they on crack or something? And haven't they heard of an elevator?

"So… a high-powered fan. Great." I sighed and shoved my hands into my pockets. Stolen memories, pink Bulbsaurs, Pikachu's that can't use electricity, bigass fans. Gee, I wonder what other pleasant surprises await me.

I stepped into the tube and stood on the grate. Through the holes, I could see the fan that was about to send me blasting off. There was enough room in the tube for three people, but the operator only allowed one in at a time. Not like it mattered. Martin and Anthony were staying on the ground. "So… this thing is just going to launch me into the air? What happens when I get to the top? I'm not going to smash into the roof, am I?"

"Relax, kid," said the operator, whose nametag said Scott. "The fan will slowly speed up, gently sending you up to the Tops. It may seem a little small, but it's powered by a whole team of Electrode. There's more than enough juice in it to send you to the moon."

Regardless of his intentions, that did not inspire confidence in me.

"Just make sure to secure any unsecured items, please," He said, resting his hand on a big red lever. "If that stuff gets scattered in the tube, it'll probably be gone forever."

I quickly checked my pockets. Empty. No money, unsurprisingly. I tucked my PokéBalls into my backpack. "Okay," I said. "I guess I'm ready." I pulled down on the hem of my shirt so it wouldn't fly upward. "Beam me up, Scotty."

The operator laughed. "That's what they all say." He pulled the lever down.

Below me, the fan slowly began spinning, getting faster and faster with each rotation. Oh no… What I've I gotten myself into this time?

The wind pushing up was getting stronger and stronger, and I had to shut my eyes. Oh balls oh balls oh balls… Then my feet left the ground. It's hard to describe that feeling. You feel empowered, because you're literally flying, but you're scared to death and cold at the same time. And your hair just got messed up.

Several seconds of deafening roaring of the wind later, I cracked an eye open. Oh look! I can see the Pokémon Center from up here! It's roof is so red! I was rising at a steady pace, and fighting the urge to vomit. When I said I like getting high, this is not what I meant.

Finally, I felt arms wrap themselves around me. "I gotch'a," said a gruff voice, as the man pulled me out of the tube. The operator set me down on the ground. "Welcome to the Tops, young lady," he said with a chuckle. "We hope you enjoy your stay."

"Y-yeah," I stammered, whether it was the cold from the wind or I was just shaken up in general, I didn't know. I do know that I'm never, ever doing that again. Ever. "S-so, w-where's the G-gym?"

The kind operator pointed me toward a large building with a brown roof. I thanked him and started towards the building, when I looked over at the skyscraper. There were satellite dishes all over it. Oh… so it was some sort of broadcasting tower! So that's why it's up here. You'd get a pretty good range at this altitude.

"Excuse me."

I whirled around. There was a girl, about my age, standing quite close to me. I was surprised that I hadn't seen or heard her or something. She had long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, with dazzling blue eyes behind her glasses. The girl simply wore a black jacket and a pink skirt. A Rattata rode on her shoulder. "Uh, hi?"

"I just wanted to offer my congratulations for your victory in the Midna Town Trainer School Tournament," she said, holding her hand out to me. "Your fight with Nora was a decent battle, though you appeared to lack a basic strategy and were relying on pure luck."

"Um… okay." This was unexpected. I shook her hand. "And you are…

"My name is Allison Queen. But my friends call me Ally." I opened my mouth to introduce myself, but she cut me off. "You don't need to introduce yourself, Alyssa," she said. "I remember your name from the tournament." Ally guested toward the tall broadcast building behind her. "I'm work part-time at the Suntouched Broadcasting Building. I've saw the battle when it was on."

I nodded slowly. "That's cool. I, uh, I guess it's nice to meet a fan." Holy crap, I have fans? And not that devil fan that blew me up here. Huh… that's a pleasant surprise. She might be weird, but then again, you'd have to be weird to be a fan of me. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Ally. I've got a battle with a Gym Leader here in a few minutes, so kinda need to get going."

"Perhaps you should take me along with you," said Ally. "As I said before, you appear to lack a basic strategy with your Pokémon. All you do is order them to use attacks without making even a rudimentary plan. That's just a recipe for disaster."

"And you can fix that? How?"

She just shrugged. "Devising complex battle scenarios and then constructing various methods of countering them has been a hobby of mine. Though I haven't been able to exercise my brain in that field recently. I've been to busy working on my latest paper." She pulled a stack of paper out of her bag. "Would you like to read it?"

Um… no. I just want to see this Orion guy about a Gym Battle and go back down to the nice, safe ground. God, I didn't think I would ever miss dirt this much. "Sure," I said, mentally cursing myself. But I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Curse my niceness. I took one glance at the paper and blinked. "What the..."

Ally giggled. "That's Latin. A dead language now, but still the language of scholars." She took her paper back. "Particularly favored by Professor Rowan of Sinnoh. That's why it's in Latin. I'm collaborating with him on it."

I blinked. "Um… okay. That's… good." I was still processing that whole scholar thing. "So you're a scholar? And, like, working on projects with a world-renowned Professor?" My nerd alert alarms were going off.

"Rowan? Renowed?" Ally scoffed. "Please. Most of his research has just been copied from his assistants. They do the work, he gets the credit. He's such a jerk. I don't like him."

"But you're-"

"Writing a paper with him?" She finished, with a smile. I'm guessing that was another one of her hobbies. "Precisely. It's quite simple. We write this paper together, and, as usual, Rowan will try to claim the credit for himself. However, I've riddled the paper with so many errors and flaws. If he wants the credit so badly, he can take it."

"But, won't he find the errors and fix them, or something?"

"No. I'm much smarter than he is. Those mistakes are buried deep with the equations and syllogisms. It would take someone with a well-trained eye to spot them."

Alright. That's cool. This conversation took a turn down Strange Street and ended up on WTF Boulevard really quickly. "So, you're, like, one of those really smart kids, right? The types that usually get picked on in those 90's sitcoms?"

Ally glared at me. "Smart? I'm smarter than smart. I'm probably the smartest person alive." Okay, I take back what I said about the Augur. This girl's got a big ego. "And those 90's sitcoms are just an example of how hypocritical humanity is. We always tell people that they shouldn't make fun of other people because they're different, but then we have shows where smart people get bullied just for the comedy." She folded her arms. "I think that's unfair and completely disrespectful to our intelligence."

Okay… Well then. Never compare anyone to a 90's sitcom again. "So… um, you say that you can make a strategy for my battle against Orion?"

"If you want, then yes."

You know, this nerd might work out after all. Sure, she's a bit quirky, but anything that can help me win a Gym Badge was good news to me."Well then, come on. Let's go. I want to be back on the actual ground before it gets dark."

* * *

The minute I stepped into the Gym, I groaned. It looked exactly like the town. Seriously. There were plants and flowers and grass. A change of scenery wouldn't be that bad, you know. Maybe add some sand. Or water. These forests are killing me.

But, there was quite a bit of evidence that we were still indoors. The walls surrounded the scene. Electric lights lined the edges of the walls. A few small trees grew in small pots here and there, and one rather unhappy looking Sudowoodo was shooting rocks at a person holding a watering can.

So… this is what a Gym looks like.

There was a large raised platform, similar to the battlefield in the Midna Town school. On it, there was a kid sitting in a lawn chair, sipping on a glass of lemonade. He had bright red hair, and was wearing a white tank top with a pair of shorts. A pair of sunglasses covered his eyes. There was a pedestal next to the chair, holding a round white stone.

"Well well," said the kid, with one of those 'I'm so much better than everyone else' tones in his voice. "It looks like we've got a challenger." He set his lemonade down next to his chair and stood up. "Are you here to face Orion, the strongest Gym Leader ever?"

I blinked. "Um..." Does everybody have an ego around here? "Yeah, I guess." Ally pushed me forward toward Orion. "I guess I am here to challenge you."

Orion smiled as he took off his sunglasses and set them next to the rock. "You hear that?" he asked, looking over to the white stone. "She's here to challenge me." The juvenile Gym Leader burst into laughter. "I know, right! She really doesn't look like much."

"What are you-"

The kid cut me off by raising a finger. "Hold on, my rock is talking." He leaned his ear closer to the stone. "Uh huh… uh huh… yeah..." Then he chuckled again. "Yeah, she's totally one of those."

"Hey! That rock better not be talking bad about me!" Oh God, what am I even saying? "Look, I know you like talking to your… friend there, but I really just want to have a quick battle so I can go back down to Earth, if that's okay."

Orion just stared at me. "Did you hear that?" he asked his rock. "She just wants to have a quick battle and then get out of here. She doesn't even want to talk to you. That's rather rude. You know what, I don't think I want to battle you. You're disrespecting my rock!"

Oh dear God in heaven above. Ally grabbed my shoulder. "Just apologize to the rock. It's a little out there, I know, but right now it's the only way to get him to battle you," she whispered in my ear. "Besides, the best way to deal with crazy is to be a little crazy."

I sighed. "Okay." I looked up at the stone. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stone… or Mr. Rock, or Mrs. Rock, or whatever you are." Oh wow, smooth start. "I apologize for disrespecting you. I have seen the errors of my ways and I duly promise to change."

_See that you do_, replied the stone.

I blinked. Again. "Um… you heard that too, right?" I asked, leaning over to Ally. "Please tell me you heard that."

"Heard what?"

Oh crap. I guess I'm crazy too. "Never mind." I sighed and looked up at Orion. "So… are we cool now? Can I get that battle that I wanted?"

Orion seemed to think about it, before consulting with his rock. A few seconds later, he smiled and nodded. "We've decided to forgive you." He motioned to the battlefield that he stood on. "Let me clean up first, then we can get started." Orion grabbed his chair to the side and quickly chugged the rest of the lemonade. Then he slowly dragged the stone's pedestal off to the side. "Okay, come on up!"

Ally and I slowly walked up onto the battlefield. "You got this, right?" I asked the genius girl. "I honestly have no idea what I'm doing."

"Truthfully, I'm not sure."

"I thought you said you came up with strategies in your spare time."

"I do. But when I do that, I'm typically aware of all variables of the battle," she replied, taking off her glasses and cleaning the inside lenses. "However, in this specific instance, I don't know what Orion has, and I don't know what you have on your team, nor the skills and abilities they possess."

"…so basically, we're just winging this, then?"

"Well, as much as I dislike saying it, yes. We're winging this one."

Great. And here I thought I actually stood a chance at winning on my first try. Way to screw me over, Ally. I haven't even known her for twenty minutes, and already she screwed me over on something. Usually, it takes them at least an hour.

"Alright, Orion," I said, turning back to the boy as I pulled out my Pikachu's PokéBall. "Let's get this show on the road! Prescott, you're up!" The electric mouse appeared on the field, with a rather joyous look on his face. Then he realized that it was battle time. His joy faded. Slightly.

"Pikachu, eh?" asked Orion, with a slightly condescending tone. "Haven't seen anyone open up with one of those in a while." He slipped a hand in his pocket, and pulled out a PokéBall of his own. "I choose you, Vulpix!"

A little red fox-like Pokémon appeared on the field. It looked so cute and cuddly, but I knew better. That thing was probably a killing machine that could put Henry to shame. Okay, I take that back. Henry has actually killed people before. This Vulpix probably just knocked them out.

I was about to tell Prescott to start with a Quick Attack, when Orion suddenly motioned to a guy standing off to the side of the battlefield next to an ominous looking red button. "Open it up, Jim," he said. "Let's get some sunlight in here."

Oh man. Never press the red button. That never ends well for the good guys. Ever. Of course, the man pressed the red button. There was a large creaking, and a large groaning sound. Then, the Gym's roof began to split apart.

"What the..." I said, for the second time in half an hour. The Gym's roof opened up, letting in the blazing sunlight of the sun that was just so perfectly overhead that I swore this had to be a set-up. "Um… okay..."

Ally just blinked, staring up into the now open air. "Well… that's new," she muttered. "But quite clever."

"What?"

The blonde genius smiled. "Orion built his Gym up here so he could be closer to the sun. The closer he is to the sun, the more power that his Fire-Types can deal. Having this sunroof so close to the sun acts as a substitute for moves such as Sunny Day..." She stroked her chin. "Gyms in Torren are based around themes, rather than types, so I'm willing to bet that Orion has a sun-themed team!"

There was a long pause. Then Orion waved his hands at the open roof and the sun above it. "Gee, Einstein. What was your first clue?"

Ally balled her fists. "Do not insult Einstein like that! He was a better man than you'll ever be!"

"So creating a weapon that kills 100,000 people makes you a better man?"

"Regardless of the atomic bomb, his contributions to our understanding of the universe have gone unchallenged for almost a century!"

"I hope you understand this contribution, lady!" Orion flipped Ally the bird.

I sighed. This is my life. Arceus, what did I ever do to you? Whatever it was I did to deserve this, please forgive me. Or just kill me now. Either way works. "Let's just get this battle on with, okay? You two can argue about Einstein later, okay?"

"Fine," said the kid Gym Leader. He nodded to me. "Ladies first."

"Alright, Prescott, start things off with a Quick Attack!" And thus, my first official Gym Battle started.

"Pika!" Prescott took off in a flash, becoming nothing more than a yellow blur on the battlefield. The Vulpix eye's tried to track the Pikachu, but it ultimately gave up and braced for the impact. Prescott slammed into the small little fire fox, but the Vulpix somehow remained on its feet. I guess this wasn't its first rodeo.

"Flamethrower!" Orion shouted.

Oh. That didn't sound good.

"Vul!" The little fire Pokémon reared it's little head back, and then let loose the biggest wave of fire that I've ever seen. Even bigger than Henry's attacks. Prescott threw his hands in front of his face and let loose the loudest squeal I've ever heard as the attack hit him. Hearing him scream that much was actually pretty terrifying.

"Okay, smart girl," I said, fighting back the urge to call Prescott back. "I need a plan. Now."

She just stared at me. "Seriously? Pikachu is an Electric-Type. Use Thunder Wave to paralyze if and hit it with a Thunder Shock. That's such an elementary tactic, but it works pretty well."

"Yeah… about that." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Prescott isn't exactly… well, you see, he's kinda…" I sighed. Might as well just say it. "He can't use any electric attacks." Saying something like that might not seem like a big deal, but it's pretty embarrassing to have a Pikachu that can't use electric attacks. Especially when you're dealing with Ally. You know, the type of person that thinks that they're better than you in every way, and is probably right about that.

"What?" Ally asked, with some surprise. "What are you talking about? All Pikachu's can learn electric moves. It's in their genetics."

"Prescott, you want to give her a demonstration, or should we just go for another Quick Attack?" He looked up at me, all burned and battered, and shrugged. He was cool with whatever. "Quick Attack it is, then!"

"Pika!" Once more Prescott rushed into the breach, but, unfortunately for him, the Vulpix had learned its lesson. It waited, timing its move, and then jumped to the side. Prescott went flying past and ultimately slammed his head on the wall. Ouch. "Pika..."

That looked like it hurt.

"Flamethrower!"

And that was going to hurt more.

To make a long story short, or a short story even shorter, Prescott did not walk away from that one. I muttered a million curses of death and famine to the Vulpix and its family as I recalled Prescott. "That didn't go so well," I said, looking over at Ally. "You know, you're not really helping."

"I tried. You didn't use Thunder Wave."

"And I tried to tell you. Prescott can't use Thunder Wave."

"Well, why not?"

"Hell, I don't know."

"Hm..." Ally rubbed her chin. "Perhaps it's just his genetics. It's not unheard of..."

"Getting bored over here," Orion remarked, punctuating his sentence with an over-dramatic fake yawn. "Not getting any younger, either."

Ergh. Kids. So impatient. "Okay, it's Big Henry's turn!" I tossed the Great Ball and the large Heatmor appeared. I figured I might as well go for power, now. There was no chance I was walking out of here with a badge this time. "Use Slash!"

Henry growled a pretty deep, and pretty damn terrifying, growl, before running forward and swiping his large claws at the Vulpix. But, the nimble little Vulpix was too quick for him, dodging every Slash. Okay… so that wasn't such a good idea…

"Shadow Ball!" The little fire fox formed a ball of pure shadows above its head, before launching it at Henry. The Heatmor grunted as the attack connected, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that we were thinking the same thing. That attack was more powerful that we'd imagined.

"Henry, use-"

"Mor!" Henry slowly stood up to his full height, with fire beginning to spill out of the corners of his mouth. He glared down at the little Vulpix, who looked compeltely unfazed by the large evil murder standing before it. The the Heatmor reared back. "Heat!" An impressive stream of flames shot from his mouth into the air. If I hadn't know it was Henry, I would've sworn that Satan himself made that fire.

"Okay, that was cool and all," I said, "But now use-"

"Heat! Mor!" Henry charged the Vulpix swinging his arms wildly in a chaotic flurry of Slash attacks.

But I wasn't going to order slash… I was going to go for the Flamethrower. "Henry, what are you doing?" I got no response. The Heatmor was busy attempting to hit the little Vulpix, who was quite easy dodging all attacks. "Henry! What the hell are you doing?"

"Heat!" He stabbed the ground where the Vulpix had been standing only moments before. "Mor!" The Pokémon was tearing up quite a bit of the battlefield while trying to hit that little fire fox. "Heatmor!"

Oh, this was bad. So very bad. I don't want to add Orion's Vulpix to the list of Henry's victims."Henry! Stand down!" I shouted. "Stop attacking! Get back here right now!" But he didn't listen. So I turned to the smart person. "What he's doing?"

Ally shook her head. "He don't think he quite respects you as a trainer," she said, in a pretty calm tone. Perhaps she's seen Pokémon go on murderous rampages before. "You should call him back, right now. Before he hurts someone."

But… Henry's my strongest Pokémon right now… Ah, screw it. Maybe I'll be like that one guy from Kanto. You know, get a badge without actually winning the match. "Son of a bitch," I muttered, calling Henry back to his Great Ball.

There was a pretty nice silence afterward. No more shouting Heatmor, no more shooting flames. Almost serene. But there was that little patch of grass that was on fire. And that flower. And most of the dirt on the battlefield field had be upturned.

"Whoops," I said, as awkwardly as awkward gets. "Didn't know he'd do that. Sorry."

Orion seemed unfazed. Why does everyone seem unfazed about this? "Eh, it was nothing. Besides, I've seen worse." He turned to his rock. "Isn't that right?" Silence. Orion nodded. "Yeah, I remember her. God, she was an ass."

"...should a juvenile such as yourself be allowed to use such a profane vocabulary?" Ally asked, with a tilt of her head.

"Hey, screw you, lady! I'm the Gym Leader!"

"...then maybe you should start acting like one."

"Excuse me? Did she just insult us? My rock and I will not stand for this." Orion folded his arms and stamped his foot. If he were any younger, I'd swear he was about to have a temper tantrum.

"Your rock can't stand. It doesn't have legs."

I'll admit it. I giggled at that one.

"Oh yeah?" Orion retorted, putting his hands on his hips. "Well… you're can't… you don't… you're a..." Orion was stammering for a comeback. He looked over to his rock. "What was that?" He leaned in closer. "Ooh… that's good. Can I use another bad word? Aw, please? Fine. Wait, say that part again? Um… okay, I think I got it."

Ally and I shot each other a look. This was going to be good.

"Ahem," Orion cleared his throat. "My rock would like to inform you that you're just an egotistical, pathetic little girl who always has to use big words to make other people feel bad about themselves just so she won't feel as bad about her own insecurities."

…

Well, damn. Shots fired.

Ally just blinked. "That's not… that's not true!" She balled up her fists. "I don't feel bad about my insecurities!" She paused. "I don't even have any insecurities!" Her face was getting redder and redder. Oh God, please don't do a Henry Rampage. Please don't do it.

Orion smirked. "What's the matter, lady? You know it's true. My rock is never wrong about these things. He's good at reading people, you know. He can even tell you your deepest secrets." Ally's face went fire red. "Like your feelings for that friend of yours, Jason. What you do every night to help you sleep." Orion's eyes narrowed, almost to ominous proportions. "Why you almost didn't exist."

"Stop it! Don't even go there!" Ally shouted. Her knuckles were as white as… what's that white dragon's name again? Reshiram. Yeah, that's it. "Just, leave me alone!" Tears were starting to fall down her cheek as she turned on her heel and ran out of the Gym.

And once again there was an awkward silence in the Gym. Okay, so what do I do now? "So… you made a girl cry, huh?" I said, turning to Orion. "You must be real proud of yourself… you freakin' jackass."

"Eh, it's nothing new to me," he replied. "Sometimes, I battle little girls. Like, younger than me little. Nine times out of ten they end up running out of here in tears because they're precious little Cleffa or Iggybuff is on fire. Literally on fire."

I stared at him with incredulity on my face. "Oh my God, you really are a ass-hat, aren't you?"

"Well..." Orion turned to his rock, which was apparently talking to him. There was a few seconds before Orion replied. "Oh yeah? Well I did your mom." He said to it, then looked back to me. "My rock agreed with you, by the way."

"That's… great."

"So… how about we continue this battle? We were just getting to the good part."

"Oh, um..." I looked down at my PokéBalls. All I had left was Alice. Henry was out of the question, due to some small anger management issues. But… don't Fire-Types resist Fairy-Types? I think they do. I'm just going to call it. There's no way I can win? Why put Alice through some needless pain.

"Look," I said. "I'd love to, but to be completely honest, there's no way I could win. So… I'm just going to forfeit." I tried to fake smile. God, I didn't want to do that. But that was the only way. "I just didn't realize how strong you were."

"Oh..." his smile faded. "I guess so. Yeah, go ahead." The Gym Leader shrugged. "I was really hoping that I could pown some noobs today, but I guess forfeiting works to." He recalled his Vulpix. "You… uh, you should probably tell your friend that I'm sorry."

"I will. That's very grown up of you, Orion."

"It is? Then I take it back."

"Too late!" I shouted over my shoulder as I bolted out of the Gym. The sun had set, and the stars were out. A cold breeze fluttered through the night air. "Ally!" I shouted, looking for the blonde genius. She was nowhere in sight. "Ally!"

Still nothing. "Damn it." I swore, kicking a lamppost. Pain shot up my leg. "Damn, why did I do that?" I muttered, hoping around on one foot while holding the other like a cartoon character. "That was really friggin' stupid."

When I recovered a few seconds later, I searched the upper level for Ally. The people in the Broadcast building hadn't seen her, the people on their way home hadn't seen her, the couple that was making out and was probably going to go all the way hadn't seen her.

I sighed. So much for trying to make her feel better. It was a weird feeling, you know? In all the movies and in all the books, the hero always finds and comforts the sad person. But this isn't a book. This is real life. And real life rarely works out well.

…

Okay, now that was kinda depressing. I'm going to go back to the Pokémon Center and take a well-needed nap. I'll worry about all of this tomorrow.

* * *

**Well, Merry Christmas! I hope you all got some good loot. I just got a bunch of candy, some clothes, some doughnuts (that, sadly, did not make it through the day) and a small 3D printer. Not too bad, if you ask me.**

**Anyway, I'm trying to get back into the cycle of writing, and get a chapter out once a week. There were a few setbacks this week, so I had to take an extra couple of days, but at least it's in the same month as the prior one.**

**Anyway anyway, I felt kinda "eh" with this chapter. So, how did you guys think I did? There are a couple of things that I didn't like, and some I did (Might've gone overboard with Orion), but overall, it felt kinda meh.**

**Well, that's all she wrote.**

**Until next chapter.**


	12. Effects

**AidanLynches**: Sorry about not getting this out before the end of break. School came back hard. Anyway, I modeled Orion's character slightly after one of those kids you might find in online matches of just about any FPS games. Might've gone overboard a little bit, though. And I've never really understood the whole thing about badges and Pokémon obeying you either. Maybe Pokémon just like shiny things? I know I do.

**WyldClaw**: I'm glad to see that I can write some riveting action scenes. Though I don't know what you mean by Edie. Is that an error, or do I just not know the meaning?

**Naruto secret jutsu**: Yeah, pretty much. It was just one of those things that I started out thinking it would be funny, but then it just kept going and going, and I think I might've gone a little too far. But I'm glad that you like Ally. I've had her character in mind for a long time.

**Antex – The Legendary Zoroark**: I agree. Something was missing. I don't know what. But I think that's one of my problems of trying to stick to a schedule. Sometimes I just need more time to make something really good. My problem is that I sometimes take too much time. But I'm working on getting better at that. That's one of my New Year's Resolutions.

**Miyu1234**: Don't worry. I plan on doing more Insurgence. And yes, LOL indeed.

**Magicanus**: I doubt Orion will be like that, yeah. He's only in the game a little bit, and he'll probably change a little bit when we see him next after Alyssa earns her first badge. And… you're quite perceptive.

**Jaegothis**: The fan had a grate to protect the passengers, and Alyssa has a Heatmor. Not a Heatran. I might've accidentally referred to it as a Heatran once, though. But I figured that I've gotten it right enough times for people to understand. There haven't been any problems in the past.

* * *

**This chapter is dedicated specially to The SuzeRain, developer of Pokémon Insurgence.**

* * *

_Chapter Twelve: Effects_

… _and was quite surprised by the amount of light there was in there. It wasn't dark at all. I blinked. I think it was actually brighter in here than it was outside._

_I was back at that cave, the one that the weird dream girl benefactor lady had brought me to in that dream I had a while ago. I groaned. No… I hate caves. Even fake ones in dreams. Why can't my mind wrap that around my head?_

"_Nice place, isn't it?" asked the girl, as she followed me into the cave. "Sure it's falling apart here and there, but hey. All of us have a problems, after all."_

_I stared at her. "Oh no, not you again. Can you do me a favor and actually make some sense this time? I am not in the mood to deal with all that cryptic crap again."_

_She smiled, with a bright glint in her sapphire eyes. "Alyssa, you're not really understanding it all yet. I'm not being cryptic. You just don't remember it yet."_

"_Oh, that clears it all up," I said, with as much sarcasm that I could dig out of my soul. I took a deep breath, and let it out. "Okay, you said that this was the place that I was looking for. Now, why am I looking for this stupid cave?"_

"_You know why, and yet, you don't know why."_

_Here we go again. "You said that I would see once I was inside." I looked around. "Well, I'm inside. There's nothing but dirt and rocks. I'm not really looking for dirt and rocks."_

"_Typical Alyssa," said the girl, shaking her head. "Always taking things for face value. You never were good at figuring out the hidden meaning of things."_

_"...and that's a bad thing?"_

"_Well, you should know the answer to that."_

_I rolled my eyes. "But I don't, you stupid dream girl. I can't remember how many times I've stressed that to you."_

_The girl sighed. "Fine. That's another thing about you. Sometimes you just need a little help. Follow me." She started walking down a really dark tunnel. Like, dark dark. So dark you could turn on a light and you still couldn't see._

_I reluctantly followed her. It was a strange feeling. Everything was pitch black, but I wasn't nervous about walking for some reason. Like I knew that there wasn't anything in there that I would walk into. "So… where are we going?" I asked, after a few minutes of walking. "It's getting kinda dull."_

"_We're here," said the girl. Suddenly, lights snapped on above us. Someone had taken the time to install those cheap lightbulbs that hung down from a wire in this cave. The tunnel that we came through was still dark."This is as far as we can go." The tunnel in front of us was blocked off. There was a sign that said "Under Construction."_

"_A dead end?" I blinked. "You brought me all the way to this dead end?"_

_The girl motioned to an indent in the wall. In it was an image. Figures froze in time. I did a double take when I saw it._

_It was me. Standing in the Suntouched Gym. Looking over my shoulder as Ally ran out of the building in tears. My heart sank. That was one of the few things that I didn't want to remember. I really should've done something."Why… why is this here? Why did you bring me all this way just to see this?"_

"_There's more." The girl motioned to the lit portion of the cave. There were more images. I saw me and Nora fighting the cultists that tried to take the Riolu. Then there was me capturing Henry. Then it was me winning the Midna Town tournament. Then me meeting Nora for the first time. The images went all the way back, each showing a time before the last, before stopping at the darkness of the rest of the tunnel._

"_These… these are my memories… aren't they?" I asked, reaching out to touch the image of when I caught Prescott. My hand went right through. "These are all things that I remember..." Looking at each image made me feel the same feelings that felt when it actually happened._

"_You're beginning to get it, Alyssa," said the girl. She folded her arms and leaned against the cave wall right next to the newest memory. "But do you know why I brought you here?"_

_My eyes turned to the dark portion of the cave. "They're back there, aren't they?" I asked, my hand slowly falling to my side. "That's where all the things that I don't remember… all the memories that were taken from me."_

"_See? You understand this. You just needed a little push. But the more important question; do you know why I brought you here?"_

_I didn't answer. I was too busy staring into the darkness. They're there… my memories are right there. I took a step forward. Will I actually be able to remember? Do I want to remember? I took another step. I was just inches from the darkness. I took a breath._

_A pair of hands lashed out at me from the darkness. "Gengar!"_

_"Hellfire!" I swore, falling back, narrowly avoiding the claws. Through the darkness, I could see the Gengar standing there, watching with that damn smile on his face. "You asshole. Scared the crap out of me."_

"_Gengar!" It said again, standing in between me and the darkness._

"_Yeah, forgot to tell you about that," the girl said, with a hint of laughter in her voice. "The Gengar's guarding your memories. You can't get past it. At least not until… well, you remember."_

_I stood up, brushing the dirt off of my jumpsuit pants. Hey, they're not burned like are in real life. "Little prick," I muttered, staring at the ghost Pokémon._

"_Hey, just doin' my job," it replied._

_The girl walked over and grabbed me arm. "Come on, over here." She guided me back to the latest memory. "You see this here?" she gestured to me in the Gym. "This is why I brought you here."_

"_To remind me that of something that I'm not proud of?"_

"_No. Take a look at the rest of the images. Do you realize the pattern yet?"_

"_Pattern?"_

_The girl sighed again. "I didn't think so. You are kind of a dumb blonde." She pointed to the first image in the light. "That's Mew saving you from the Darkrai Cult." She moved down to the second. "That's you meeting Damian, because he thought he saw Mew. Get it now?"_

_"Um… something with Mew, right?"_

_The girl groaned. "You're so dense. Fine, let me be a little more obvious." She pointed to the third. "That's you helping Damian find the rare stones, because you met him because of Mew." She moved to the fourth. "That's you helping Damian defend the Augur because you heard about the culist's plans while helping Damian find the stones because you met him because of Mew."_

_Wait a minute. Click._

"_Cause and effect… right?"_

_The girl snapped her fingers. "Bingo! We've got a winner!"_

_Holy crap. I was right?_

_That has to be a first._

"_You see, each of your actions has an outcome." She pointed back to the memories. "Cause: You saved the Augur, and he gave you a formal invitation to Helios City. Effect: You left on a journey." She moved to the next one. "Cause: You left on a journey. Effect: You caught Prescott."_

"_Okay, so we've determined that all my actions have outcomes," I said, sticking my hands in my pockets. I was still proud of myself for figuring that out. "So why is that important? I kinda already knew that."_

_The girl smiled with that creepy smile of hers. "This." She pointed to the Gym memory. "There's the cause, but there's no effect. Not yet at least. You know what that means, right?"_

_"What?"_

"_That there's still some time for you to make sure that the effect is something that you like." She motioned to the part of the tunnel that was still under construction. "The next time we meet, I don't want you to have to relive memories that you don't want to see."_

_I nodded slowly. "So… I need to make sure that nothing bad happens because of this…" Hm. That was actually helpful. "You know, you were a lot more helpful this time around than the last."_

_The girl smiled. "Don't thank me for it."_

_Time to try my luck. "So… are you going to tell me who you are now?"_

_She shook her head. "I already told you. I can't tell you because you don't know yet. But I can say this. I'm not who I look like."_

"… _who do you look like?"_

"_Again, I can't tell you because you don't know." She looked down at her wrist, where there was no watch. "Well, that's all the time we have, Alyssa. I'll be seeing you again, sometime soon."_

* * *

The Suntouched Broadcast Center was quite the building on the outside. A tall tower that… well, towered, over all of the other buildings on the second level. Satellite dishes ringed the top of the skyscraper, sending whatever information wherever it was needed.

I stood in front of the glass doors, which for some reason, were tinted. I couldn't see through them. Hm. That really defeats the purpose of having glass doors, now doesn't it? Prescott was riding on my shoulder, while Alice was walking alongside of me. I decided to let them out for now because I felt like I'd been cramming them into their PokéBalls quite a bit recently.

"Pika?" Prescott tilted his head, looking up at the building. Apparently, I don't think he's ever seen anything of this magnitude before. "Pika pika!"

"Yes," I nodded in agreement. "That is a very tall building." That's probably not what he said, but I figured it was close enough. You know, some day, I'm probably going to figure out exactly what my Pokémon are saying, and it's probably not going to be anything nice. I willing to bet that Alice has a mouth that would put a sailor to shame.

Despite the glorious looking outside, the inside of the broadcast building was kinda bland. Just white tile floors, white walls, and a white ceiling. The only thing in there that wasn't such a bland color were the two potted plants by the door, which, sadly, were plastic.

"Hello!" said the secretary behind the desk, with a lot more enthusiasm than was necessary. "Welcome to Suntouched Broadcasting!" She had on a tight white dress and picked up a clipboard as she walked over to me. "Are you here to audition for the pilot of our new series?" She thrust a piece of paper into my hands.

"Um… sorry, not really," I replied, looking down at the flyer. It was detailing a casting call for a trainer for some show. But, alas, my days as a TV star were over. I just couldn't risk it. Who knows how many cultists would see that broadcast? It would only be a matter of time before they came after me. "I'm just here looking for Ally. I need to talk to her."

"Shame," the secretary said. I blinked. Since when is talking to someone a shame? "You look like a decent trainer." She walked over and scratched Prescott between his ears. "You've got a cute little Pikachu."

Prescott was rather happy about that. "Pika!" He nuzzled his head into her hand.

"And that's a cute little..." She stared down at Alice and her overly cheerful smile faded. "Whatever the heck that thing is."

"Alice is an Ivysaur. Not a thing," I said, shooting her the most evil, annoyed, agitated look. I mean, come on, really? She might be a Delta Ivysaur, but she still looks close enough to a normal Ivysaur for some one to put it together. Delta Pokémon aren't all that uncommon in the Torren region. "I thought you would've been able to figure that one out."

"Well… aren't Ivysaurs supposed to be more… you know, green? And planty?"

"Well… aren't secretaries supposed to be more… you know, helpful?" Oh wow, that really came out of nowhere. I really need to start applying a brain-to-mouth filter.

The secretary just stared at me. She was probably shocked that someone had insulted her. I could tell by her vacant stare of outright disbelief. "Well then," she said, smoothing out her already smoothed out dress. "If you want to talk to Miss Queen, she's in IT." And with that, she went back to her desk, probably plotting my demise or something.

"Great, thank you," I said. "That was very helpful." I meant to be sincere, but it came off sounding slightly more sarcastic than I intended. I rather indignantly shoved the flyer into my pocket. Might not be something for me, but Anthony might be up for it. Or Martin.

"Ivy..." muttered Alice, as we walked down the hall. "Saur."

"Yeah, tell me about it. She was a compete prick."

The IT room looked like nerd heaven. It was dark, illuminated only by the screens of at least twenty computers. There was a multitude of routers and modems and cables and a bunch of other nerdy stuff that I can't name. I slowly pushed the door open. It was mostly quite, save for the humming of the computers.

"Dear God, Eric," said a voice, from over in the corner. "The hell did you do?" A bunch of people, presumably the nerds that worked here, were standing around a single computer, watching a certain blonde genius girl as she did something. "You completely screwed everything up!"

"I fixed everything!" replied another voice, presumably Eric. "I don't see what you're complaining about!"

"You don't understand, what I had was working perfectly! I don't need those "improvement" of yours! That throws off the efficiency! Before, I just had to press a single key to operate that function. Now, I have to press at least three keys, if not more."

"You're just not getting it, Ally. If you actually knew the code, then you'd see that it works perfectly."

Ally just stared at him. "I _wrote _the code, you freakin' jackass." Then she noticed me. "If you'll excuse me, I need to talk with my friend." She stood up and walked over. "Alyssa, I'm surprised to see you here. I would ask why you're here, but I'm about 96.6% positive that it's to discuss the events at the Gym yesterday."

"Only 96.6%? What about the other…" I had to pause to do the math. "Um, 3.4%? Yeah, I think that's right."

"I gave myself a little margin of error in case you were actually here to have me fix your computer." She nodded over to the group of guys. "That's all they ever need me for."

"Well, I don't even have a computer, so you don't need to worry about that."

She smiled. "That's a relief. These guys don't know what they're doing half of the time." Ally looked down at Alice. She bit her lip. Then she looked over to Prescott. Her smile widened slightly, and she reached out and stroked his head, between the ears like last time. "I like your Pikachu," she said. "There were a few of them living in Viridian Forest, back home in Kanto."

Prescott was, again, overly cheerful about getting petted. "Pika piii!" he squealed.

"Saur..." Apparently, some one wasn't happy that the Pikachu was getting all of the attention.

"Here, hold this." I took Prescott off of my shoulder and handed him to Ally. Then I reached down and picked up Alice. It was harder than before, since she was no longer the cute Bulbasuar, but instead now the substantially larger cute Ivysaur.

Ooh, substantially. Big word. Should've said that out loud. Ally would've been impressed.

"I'm actually just about to leave on my lunch break," said the genius, as my Pikachu snuggled into her arms. "There's a nice little restaurant near the Pokémon Center. Do you care to join me? My treat."

"Um… yeah. Sure." Hey, it was free food. I'm not going to turn down free food. "Why not?"

* * *

Apparently, a genius' definition of "nice" is vastly different from mine. I was expecting a place that you came in, sat down, ordered some food, ate, and left. Ally meant a five-star Italian restaurant that was probably fancier than all the restaurants that I've eaten in before combined.

"You know, I don't think that pink is quite your color," Ally said, looking at my dress. "Perhaps you should've gone with the purple one." Then she shrugged. "But then again, I'm not an expert in the fashion department.

Oh, yeah. That's another thing. It was one of those restuarants where you had to dress up really nice, otherwise they'd think you were poor and kick you out or something. Even your Pokémon had to be dressed nicely. So we had to swing by Ally's apartment and grab some fancy attire. And I learned another thing about myself.

I hate dresses.

I don't know why. Maybe some bad childhood memories that I don't remember, or maybe because I just like pants, but I do not like dresses. I had some feeling of anger and resentment when I learned that I had to wear one, but since I was doing this for Ally, because I was an idiot earlier, I decided that I'd suffer through it. I didn't realize how much I really hated dresses until about twenty minutes later.

But… it was worth it to see Prescott in a bowtie.

"Pika..." Prescott tugged at the bowtie around his neck. "Pika pii..." Not a fan.

"Don't worry, Prescott," I said. "It's just for one meal, alright? I think you can suffer through it." Just like I am, I said in my head. It's just for one meal… just one meal… God, I hate this dress.

Alice got off lucky. I wanted to put a flower in her… well, she didn't have hair, but you know what I mean. Then Ally pointed out that Delta Ivysaurs already have a flower on them, so she was set.

"Have you ever had Italian food, Alyssa?" asked Ally, as the waited brought our food. I didn't really know what I was getting, since the menu was in some strange, foreign language. Ally had to order for me. "Some of the best food in the world comes from Italy."

I shook my head. "I don't even know where Italy is. It sounds made up. Is it anywhere near Torren?"

Ally just laughed. But she didn't give me an answer. Great, now I really want to know. "I ordered the _pansotti alla genovese_; basically a type of huge ravioli. It's really good."

"Alright, I'll give it a try." It smelled really good. Like, seriously. Better than anything I've eaten since I woke up in the Darkrai Cult hangout. It might just give those brownies a run for their money. "Just one question. What do I use?" I looked down at the vast variety of silverware on the table. Three spoons, three forks… more than I needed. Why do they do this to us poor folk?

With a sigh, Ally pointed out the correct utensil, and I began eating the huge ravioli. Turns out, she was right. It was pretty good. But… those brownies are still at the top of my list. Speaking of which… I need to make a return trip to Telnor Town sometime to get some more.

"So… I was doing some thinking earlier this morning," Ally said. "I think I might've figured out why your Heatmor was so reluctant to listen to you."

"Really? Why?"

"Because he's jealous."

I blinked. That wasn't on my list of reasons Henry doesn't listen. Honestly, all of the top ten were because he hated me. "Jealous? Henry doesn't seem like the type that gets jealous."

"You spend more time with your Pikachu and Ivysaur, do you not?"

I looked over at Alice and Prescott. They did seem to get a lot of fresh air while Henry was cooped up in his ball. "Well… Henry just gets a little… anxious, around people." And by anxious, I mean murderous.

"And by anxious, you mean murderous?"

I blinked. Whoa… that was weird. "Um… yeah, kinda. That's why I keep him in his ball. I don't want him getting out and hurting people."

"That's a sign of distrust, right?"

"Um… I think so. I guess…"

Ally nodded. "He doesn't trust you because you don't trust him. Let him out just as often as the others. He'll come around eventually."

"Are you sure?"

"I've studied Pokémon behavior with Professor Birch before. I think I'm qualified to diagnose a standard case of mistrust."

I honestly don't think that the word standard could apply to anything that's happened over this whole adventure. "Well… I guess it's worth a shot." Who knows? Maybe he will finally kill me, and I won't have to worry about any of my problems anymore.

…

That was kinda depressing.

We ate out food in silence for several minutes. Prescott and Alice received several odd glances from the other customers, mainly because they had decided to forgo the silverware and go in face-first. Alice, I can understand. She doesn't really have thumbs, or hands for that matter, but I think Prescott could've handled it.

"So, let's not allow this meal to deter us from what brought us here," said the blonde genius. She took a sip from her drink. It was water in a champagne glass. Apparently, she thought I was joking when I told her to order alcohol. I wasn't. "You wanted to talk about what happened yesterday, correct?"

"Yeah, about that..." I looked down into my food. Geez, why was this harder than I thought it would be. "Look… I've never been good with things like that… or things like this… so I might have under-reacted a little. I… I should've stepped up and defended you… right?"

"Well, that wouldn't have hurt."

"I know, I should've tried harder." I stuck my fork in my food. "So… we're cool, right?"

"I don't like using that word," Ally said, "but yes. We're cool." She poked at her own food, before looking up. "Why do you care, though?"

"What?"

She shrugged. "I don't know… it's just that no one's ever really seemed to care enough about what I feel." Ally adjusted her glasses, and looked down at the table. "People used to make fun of me a lot at school, and the teachers never really did anything about it. And even my uncle..." Her eyes wandered over to my Delta Ivysaur, who was face first in her food, "even my own family doesn't seem to care about me."

"Well… I care about what you think, if that means anything," I said. But… do I really? I haven't known this girl for more than a day, after all. Maybe I just care about what that stupid dream girl thinks… or whatever it is going on there. I put a smile on my face to cover up any uncertainties that might've slipped through. "I probably don't understand what you think, but I do care about it."

The genius just laughed. "Not many people do. It's all like one big quantum physics equation in my head."

God, she has problems.

Ally wiped her mouth on the rather fancy looking cloth napkin, one that probably cost more than all the contents of my backpack. "Now, do you still need my help? Coming up with a strategy, I mean. Took a couple of notes during the battle, and I think I might be able to devise a little scheme for you."

"Um… yeah, that'd be great." Trust me, I could use all the help I can get. "How about some training? Perhaps you could see how the team fights, and then… well… do whatever it is you do when you do what you do."

"The structure of the sentence was terrible," Ally replied. "It's not the worst I've heard, but far from the best. Looks like you might need help in some other areas as well."

I scoffed. "Lady, you don't know the half of it."

* * *

A few hours later, Ally and I had concluded a rather successful training session. By successful, I mean that we raised our chances of beating Orion by 12%. That meant that our chances of beating Orion were now 12% percent. That's some pretty good improvement.

Prescott was on my shoulder (and I think he put on some weight since the last time he hitched a ride) and Alice was in my arms. She was getting a little harder to carry, since she wasn't a little Bulbasaur anymore.

It was pretty calm and quiet, and the sun had just completely set. It wasn't night yet, but the sun was behind the mountains in the distance. There was still that orange glow in the sky. Twilight? Is that what they call this time of day?

The Pokémon Center was nearly empty. A young couple was sitting in the corner, making out, and it looked like it was going to be a home run to me. Maybe even a grand slam. Whatever that equated to. A teenager that looked a few years older than me, somewhere around Anthony's age, was wearing a faded gray denim jacket with even darker faded jeans. His hair was red.

He looked familiar. But from where?

I didn't want to think that he was someone that I had known before… well, you know, I forgot everything. But this feeling of recognition hadn't happened for me before. Why was it happening now? I was 90% positive that I had never seen him before in the time that I had been awake.

"Um… can I help you?"

I blinked. Crap. I think was staring. I stared into his eyes. They were a nice green color. "Uh… sorry. You just… you just reminded me of somebody that I used to know." I think. You remind me of someone, I don't know who.

He just chuckled. "I've heard that one before. Who do I remind you of?"

"Oh." I hadn't thought this one though. "Um… some guy that I know named… um, Steve?"

"You don't sound confident with that answer."

I wasn't really. "Well, it's more of a passing resemblance of him mixed with a few other friends that I know." Wow, that was a pretty crappy answer. Or was it? Lying isn't one of the things that I'm good at.

He stared before shrugging. "Okay, that's cool." I could tell that he completely didn't believe me. "What's the matter?"

"What?"

"There's something bothering you."

"No… no there's not."

"I know that look in your eyes."

I sighed. "Um… it's nothing really."

"I doubt that."

God, he's persistent. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I also doubt that."

Damn. He doesn't know when to let up. I mean, he's not wrong, but still. "Life's just a little complicated." I walked up to the counter and handed the nurse Henry's PokéBall. Alice and Prescott were fine. Henry took a little damage when a mad Pidgeot went after him for setting her tree on fire. "That's really all there is."

"I understand. Rarely does life actually go smoothly." The nurse returned and handed him four PokéBalls. He took them and nodded a thank you. "Well, then, how about a battle? My team's getting a little rusty. We haven't seen that much action recently."

A battle? Ugh. I'm tired and I want to take a nice long, warm shower and go to bed. Unfortunately, I forgot that the passengers of the Alyssa Express were battle-hungry demons. "Pika!" Prescott chirped up, in a rather happy tone.

"Saur!" Alice rang in, with agreement.

I sighed. Alright. One more battle. "Can we make it quick? I have a date with a nice warm bed later tonight."

"Sure. Meet me outside."

I watched with a hint of suspicion as the teen walked out of the double glass doors. "There's something funny about that guy…" I said, rubbing my chin. Or at least, as well as I could with a Delta Ivysaur in my arms. "I don't trust him."

"Saur!"

"Yeah, I know."

"Saur?"

"Exactly."

"Saur."

"Agreed. Let's get this over with." The nurse handed me Henry's Great Ball, and I went outside.

The teen was leaning against a lamppost, tossing a PokéBall up and down in his hand. "You ready?" he asked, with a slightly smug smile. "One on one, okay?"

"Fair enough."

I looked down at Alice. Should I use her? No… she looked a little tired. Prescott… well, he wasn't the strongest, and I didn't want to lose to this guy. He set off that 'I'm an asshole when I win' vibe. Henry? Oh, yeah. That really worked out well last time.

But maybe Ally was right. Maybe I did need to show him that I trusted him a little more. I gripped the Great Ball. Oh my God, I can't believe I'm actually about to do this. "Okay," I said. "I'm ready."

"Then let the battle begin." The teen tossed out his PokéBall, revealing a small green, snake-like Pokémon with legs. Servine. Heh. I guess Henry was a good call after all.

"Go, Henry!"

The very large and very aggressive Heatmor appeared on the street. Okay. I trust you Henry. I trust you. Just don't screw this up.

"Ladies first," said the teen. Neither he nor the Servine seemed fazed by the Heatmor.

"My pleasure." I smirked. "Henry use Incinterate!"

"Heat!" Henry glanced back at me. "Heatmor!" He raised his fists and ran toward the Servine, slashing wildly. Ugh, damn it. I trusted him. That didn't last very long. "Heat!" Henry stabbed at the Servine, so similar to Orion's Vulpix. I sighed. I know where this is going.

The Servine expertly dodged the attacks. Yep. This isn't going to end well. Then the Servine executed a rather elegant Leaf Blade right to Henry's face.

"Heat!" Henry staggered back, red with anger. Fire burned out of the corner of his eyes. Again, that's pretty terrifying. And again, that meant he was pissed. Henry lashed out again, swinging his arms violently trying to clobber the small Grass Type Pokémon in front of him.

The Servine was just completely matrix-ing the attacks. When it had the opening, it nailed Henry once more in the face with its Leaf Blade attacks. I winced. That really looked like it hurt. I mean, Henry was a Fire Type, sure, but still.

I recalled Henry just before he released another wave of fire. "I'm… I'm sorry about all of that," I said. Prescott jumped off my arm. "Henry's a little… well… he's more of the independent type."

The teen nodded, completely unfazed by the battle. "Some Pokémon are like that. They don't really like traveling at a trainer's side." He recalled his Servine. "I've had a few like that before. They were disobedient. Always doing what they want. They had absolutely no respect for me as a trainer."

"What… what did you do about them?"

He shrugged. "Well, there wasn't much I could do. They didn't want to listen. I had to let them go. Released them into the wild. It's what was best for the both of us."

Release Henry back into the wild? I thought about it. Henry's a friggin' powerhouse. That's a huge advantage in battle… but he doesn't listen… he doesn't respect me? He'll never respect me. I looked down at the Great Ball in my hand. Should I? Could I?

"Look," the teen walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "I know that you're probably really attatched to him, even if he isn't to you. But kid," a smile crossed his face. "You really love Pokémon, don't you?"

"What?" That sounded familiar. "Yeah. Why?"

"And if I asked you a hundred times, the answer would never change?"

I blinked. Where have I heard that before. "No. Never."

"Then do what's best for the both of you." He smiled warmly. His calm green eyes stared into mine. I might've fallen for him, you know, if I didn't already have the biggest crush ever on Anthony. But Anthony was already taken… so maybe... "It might be hard, but it has to be done. You don't want to keep him against his will, do you?"

"Well, no..." Oh, I so don't like where this is going. "Are you sure that it's what I need to do?"

He shrugged. "In the end, it's your call. But if he doesn't respect you, and refuses to listen to you, then don't you think that it's just best to go your own separate ways? Trust me, I've parted ways with many of my Pokémon over the years, and it's never easy. But it's something that must be done sometimes." He stuck his hands in his pockets. "It's getting a little late. I have to be in Sonata City soon, so I really need to get going."

"Oh… okay."

And with that, the teen walked away.

I stood there, Alice in one arm, Prescott at my feet, and my eyes slowly went back to the Great Ball. I clenched my fist around it. "He's right. There's no point in fighting with Henry any longer. I guess… I guess it'd be for the best..." I took a deep breath. Then let it out. "But… after I get my first badge."

* * *

**First of all, as I stated below the reviews, this chapter is dedicated to The SuzeRain, developer of this wonderful fangame. He put up a couple of videos on his YouTube Channel, and as I watched them, I realized that he and I are really alike. I know the feeling of a lot of the things that he mentioned. One thing that he specifically brought up was how he spent so much time working on his games that he missed out on some opportunities in his life. And I know that feeling. That heavily influenced this chapter, mainly the first and second parts. As someone who's been down that road, I jut want him to know that everything you do has a cause and effect, so you need to make sure that the effect is the one that you can be happy with.**

**But anyway… I'm back. Hopefully for a few more chapters this time. I always feel really bad about neglecting stories for so long. School came back hard. I had a project and a paper both due within a week of Christmas Break ending. Then, after that, I got caught up working on my own Pokemon game. Made quite a bit of progress on that. I've also considered starting on another Pokémon story, but seeing how well I'm keeping up with this one, that doesn't sound like a smart idea.**

**Next Chapter: Alyssa nabs a fourth Pokemon, we meet some bad guys, and one of our human characters departs.**

**Whelp. That's all she wrote.**

**Until next time.**


	13. Parting

**Bet you weren't expecting to see another update from this story, now were ya?**

* * *

_Chapter Thirteen: Parting_

Believe it or not, I actually had a really peaceful night. No strange girl came to me in some strange dreams. I didn't have any nightmares. And I was really surprised by all of that. I had a lot on my mind recently, what with the whole ordeal with Ally, and trying to figure out what to do with Henry, and the general lack of memory. So I woke up happy. Hungry, but happy.

Anthony and Martin hadn't waited for me. Jerks. They were already sitting in the Pokémon Center's cafeteria, chowing down on some breakfast. But they had been nice enough to get me a tray of food, as well as some food for my Pokémon.

"S'up, guys?" I said, sliding casually into the seat across from Anthony. His Wartortles were on the table, going to town on a bowl of food. Martin's Bidoof, Biddy, was causally eating from a small bowl on the floor. "Looks like everyone's a little lively today."

"You look a little more lively today," Anthony remarked, munching on a piece of bacon. "I'm guessing you slept well." He shoved the rest of the bacon into his mouth. "I didn't see you come in last night. What time did you get in?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know. Didn't look at the clock." Anthony slid my tray over to me, and I immediately dug in. It was just some generic pancakes, but with some butter and the right amount of syrup, it was pretty good. Doesn't beat the Italy food, though. Or the brownies. Nothing beats the brownies.

I looked up to the shy kid sitting on the other side of the table. "You're awfully quiet, Martin. What's going through that mysterious mind of yours?"

"What?" He looked up, snapped out of his thoughts. "Oh… um, nothing really. Just thinking about… things." The shy and awkward kid picked at his nearly empty tray, looking into the distance. "I… I had a strange dream. The sky turned against us."

"Um… what?"

Martin looked up, apparently surprised. Perhaps he didn't mean to say that out loud. "I'm done eating," he said, pushing the tray to the middle of the table. "I'm just going to go ahead and go. I'll catch up with you guys later." Martin got up, picked up his Bidoof, and left.

I blinked. "Well… nice talking to you, too," I muttered. I looked up at Anthony. "What was that about?"

Anthony chuckled. "That's just Martin for ya. Once you get to know him, he's a little bit weird. But weird in a good way."

"Oh…" I took a large bite of my breakfast."Is he okay? I mean, I know that he's normally a little… well, depressed, but that seemed a little over the top, if you ask me."

The blonde teen that I liked just shrugged. "I don't know. He was acting a little strange yesterday when you were out." Anthony started on his waffle. "He was all quiet, and every time I suggested that we go do something, he didn't want to. It was nearly two hours before I could pry him out of bed." He scarfed down the small waffle in a matter of moments. "But, I don't think we should be too worried about him."

"Why not?"

"He's just the type that wants attention," Anthony replied, downing his orange juice. "He has his problems, and he wants help with them, but he doesn't want to ask." He coughed. "Crap, went down the wrong tube." He coughed a few more times, beating his fist against his chest. "And… and well, Martin will come to us when he really needs the help."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty much. I've seen his type." Anthony crumpled up his cup and tossed it on his empty tray. "So… what were you up to last night? Another big night?" he asked, with a smirk. "I saw that blonde chick you were with. She's kinda hot."

"No," I rolled my eyes. Guys. "I didn't do anything really interesting." I replied. I had finished my first waffle. Maybe I should let Alice and Prescott out to eat their food… I quickly released them, and they dug in. Henry would get his share a little later… when there were fewer flammable objects around. "Actually, I have a question."

"Shoot, kid."

I bit my lip. "You know Henry. He's not exactly the most obedient Pokémon in the world, right? Well, I met this guy last night, and we had a short battle. And by short, I mean Henry went nuts and was practically taken out by a Servine. And the guy said that Henry might not ever respect me, and that I should maybe just let him go." My fingers ran over the top of the Great Ball in my pocket. "I just… I don't know what to do. What do you think I should do?"

It took Anthony a moment to process that. When he did, he slowly nodded. "Some Pokémon aren't meant to be controlled by a trainer. Some of them are just born to be wild, you know. So… I would say that you should just do what your heart tells you."

Oh great, now were going with the cliches of bad romance novels. Great. "Um… yeah… thanks. You were a big help." I sighed. That didn't help me at all.

"Sarcasm?"

"You think?"

"I think it was kinda obvious. The sigh was a bit of a dead giveaway."

I nodded. "And… well… there is one other thing that's been bothering me. That guy I met, he was familiar. I've never seen him before, at least not that I can remember. And you know that I have a little problem," I tapped the side of my head. "But… I know I've seen him before. I just don't know where."

Anthony didn't say anything for a few minutes. He looked around the room. What he was looking for, I don't know. "Okay. This was probably bound to happen sooner or later. What you need to do is describe him. The better you're able to describe him, the better chance that you'll actually know him pretty well. Just close your eyes and picture him."

I closed my eyes. He had red hair… green eyes… about Anthony's age. Kinda cute actually. "Okay… I see him."

"What does he look like?"

"Well… he has red hair. It's kinda long, but not too long. Not girl-length long. It's a little messy, he needs to comb it a little… And his eyes are green. Not really green, but a nice, soft green. Blue-greenish."

Anthony stared at me for a minute, suspicion written across his brow. "Okay… that's really interesting. Go on."

"He's about your age..." I thought about it a little more. "Other than that… I can't really remember much about him." Then something clicked. "Oh! He said that same thing that you said when we first met at the lab. About asking a hundred times if I loved Pokémon."

I waited for his response. But there was silence. He didn't ditch me… did he? That would be so cold of him. I cracked an eye, and saw that he was sitting there, with a look of deep thought on his face. "Hey… you okay, blondie?" I asked. "We were kinda in the middle of something here."

"Did he have a scar on his cheek?"

"What?"

"This guy you met. Did he have a scar on his cheek?"

I blinked. "Um… I don't really remember. Why?"

Anthony reached his hand into his jacket and pulled out a picture. "Is this him?"

Oh! It was the same picture that I had pulled out of Anthony's guitar case not that long ago. The one of Anthony and his friends when they were younger. There was no mistaking it. The red-haired kid in the middle was the same red-haired guy I saw yesterday. So that's how I knew him.

"Yeah," I replied, heart breaking a little. It was disappointing to know that it wasn't someone from my past, only someone I saw in the picture. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's him. Who is… wait, is he that friend you mentioned? The one that that's wanted by those organizations?"

Anthony nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, he is." He stood up and stuck the picture back into his pocket. "Do you know where he's going?"

"I think he mentioned Sonata City."

Anthony didn't say anything for a moment. He recalled his Pokémon. "Alright, thank you, Alyssa." He slung his bag over his shoulders, and picked up his guitar case. "I kinda hate to say it, but I think this is where we part ways. At least for now."

"Wait, what?" I dropped my fork. "You're just going to leave me here? Alone?" I was too surprised to think anything. The one guy that I actually like is just up and ditching me. That's not cool, bro. "You can't just leave! I need you!"

Anthony smiled, looking down at me. "No. No you don't. You're a trainer. The only people that you need are yourself and your Pokémon. Everyone else is optional." He leaned over, and put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do fine. And I'll be back. I promise. I just need to take care of some things first." He walked away, and then paused.

I thought he had changed his mind for a minute, but that was wishful thinking. But then… he came back, leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "You… you just looked like you needed that." He smiled. "Take care of yourself." And then he left.

I sat there for a minute, trying to figure it all out. I was excited… he'd actually kissed me! On the cheek, but still. But he was gone. And that kinda sucks. Don't worry, I told myself, you'll be fine. Just focus on the matter at hand. I then sighed. "Dang it." This happy day had taken a bit of a sad turn.

* * *

"Do we really have to do this?" I asked, as Ally pushed me toward her boss' office. "I mean, I'm not exactly the type that goes on TV, you know." Oh God, please tell me that she's not actually going to make me go through with this. "And I have some pretty good reasons, too."

This lousy day had taken yet another sad turn. Now I'm being dragged down a long hallway toward the director of the Broadcasting Building. Apparently, Ally had signed me up as the trainer for the pilot episode of some new TV show. And you know how much I hate showing my face on TV.

"Stop complaining," Ally said, adjusting her glasses. "I've said it a thousand times. One way to ensure that you'll defeat Orion the next time is to invest in a fourth Pokemon. And what better than an Axew?" She pulled out a flier that matched the crumpled one in my pocket. "They need a trainer to battle against an Axew for the pilot of the new TV show."

I nodded, staring at the name on the boss' office door. "Yeah… I know that, but I'm a little..." Um… how can I get out of this with giving little information away? Not that I don't trust Ally, but I really just hate talking about my problems. "Well… I'm camera shy. And I stutter on camera. And I'm not as physically attractive as those television weather anchor ladies people." Well that was a good sentence. "I just don't want to do it."

"Do you want to win your first badge?"

"Eh… I could pass, truthfully." I didn't ask for any of this. I just kinda was thrown into this situation. You know, a victim of circumstance or whatnot. I should sue.

Ally rolled her eyes. "Shut up. You're going to do it."

"No. I'm not." I folded my arms. This is where I'm taking my stand. No backing down. "And there's nothing that you can do or say that will make me change my mind."

I scoffed, pulling the plastic rain poncho tighter, feeling the small drops of rain pelting the light yellow plastic. "_And there's nothing you can say or do that will make me change my mind_," I sassed to myself, walking through the wet grass. "You really held your ground there, Alyssa," I muttered, looking up. A helicopter flew over heard, with a camera man leaning out, filming the ground below.

Turns out, I had underestimated Ally's intelligence. And apparently, that's a very dangerous thing to do. You know what the little tramp did? She pulled that victim crap on me. She said that doing this would make up for the way that I just let her storm out of the Gym the other day. And I'm way too damn nice to say no to something like that.

I hate myself sometimes.

I was reluctant to do this at first, but when I found out that there was going to be a storm, and I got to wear a nice poncho with a hood, and that I didn't have to do any interviews in front of the camera, and that there was a rather large payment for this job, it was easier to say yes. If they're not going to put my face all over the networks again, and I get money, then why the heck not?

But I was still a little pissed at Ally.

We were walking in standard formation; Alice at my feet, jealously looking up at Prescott on my shoulder. The company had been more than kind enough to provide a small poncho for Prescott, but said that they didn't have any for Alice. I think they might've been discriminating against Alice because she was a Delta Pokémon, but I didn't protest. Much. I didn't want to start anything with these people. I just wanted get to get in, get the job done, get paid, and get out as fast as possible.

Like a hitman.

Or a hooker.

I'm not going to be picky. Take your pick. I don't think I could do either job, though.

"Alright," said the cameraman on the ground. "What we need you to do is just find and battle the Axew. You can capture it, knock it out, run from it, whatever. It's all your call. We just want to get the footage on how to encounter wild Pokémon."

"You just walk into tall grass," I replied, folding my arms. "Seriously. Everyone knows that. There's that one guy in every region that yells at little kids for trying to go into tall grass without a Pokémon. It's not that hard."

I don't think the guy appreciated my sarcasm. He just stared at me for a moment, before spitting out his piece of gum. "Yeah, whatever kid. Just go find the damn little thing. We're wasting time out here. Time is money." he paused, looking over his equipment. "And I don't know how much rain this camera can take."

Jeez, whatever. I continued marching through the tall grass, searching far and wide, but I could not find the Axew. The fact that they're generally a rare Pokémon doesn't help either.

"You know, it might be a little bit easier to do this if there wasn't a large, extremely loud, flying contraption overhead," I said, pointing up toward the helicopter. "Don't you think that that's going to scare the Axew away?"

The camerman shrugged. "I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care." He shifted the large, expensive camera on his shoulder and put another piece of gum in his mouth. "Just hurry up and find it. We're wasting time, and time is money."

I mentally flipped him off. What a charming person he is. I wonder if his camera could possibly get damaged in the battle with the Axew. Accidentally, of course. Trust me, I've encountered more than enough assholes on this trip, and only half of them have been me. That's too few.

"Look, there!" The cameraman pointed toward a rock as he popped yet another rather obnoxious bubble with his gum. "There it is!"

"What?" My eyes darted over to the rock. There was a small, dull green object sitting on the rock, causally moving around. "Oh… thank God." I was beginning to think that we would never find the thing.

The Axew was pretty laid back, chilling on the rock, doing something that seemed obscure from a distance. It's eyes were closed, and I don't think that it noticed us. Perfect ambush scenario.

"Alright kid," the cameraman took a knee, preparing the camera. "We're rolling. Remember, make this a good one."

"A good one?" Eh, maybe. Depends on your definition of good. But I didn't say that part aloud. "It's going to be short, I can tell you that." I really hate rain. Rain, caves, dresses, I hate them all. Kill them with fire, or whatever. I crouched down, and slowly began stalking toward the Axew.

The little dragon was completely oblivious to me. He… or she, I couldn't really tell, was busy smashing some nut against the rock. That's a tough nut to crack… is that the right saying? Whatever. Point is, his… or her, back was to me, leaving it completely unaware.

I looked back at the cameraman, making sure that he was ready. He gave the thumbs up. Well, here goes nothing. "Okay, Prescott, get ready to use your Quick… wait, are you up for trying a Thunder Wave?" I know that Electric Type moves aren't really Prescott's specialty, but, from what I've heard, paralyzing this Axew would make it easier to catch.

At least, that's what Ally said. And she seems to be a credible source of information.

"Pika..." Prescott shook his head. Okay, Thunder Wave is a no-go.

"Alright then," I said, smiling and patting him on the head. He tried, right? "Don't worry about it. Stick to the Quick Attack." I looked down at Delta Ivysuar. "Alice, prepare some Fairy Windy attack thingies."

"Ivy!"

"Okay, team, let's do this." I dug a PokéBall out of my pocket. Then I paused. And then grabbed two more. Best to be prepared, right? "Prescott, you're up."

"Pika!" Prescott jumped off of my shoulder and bolted through the tall grass. The Axew whirled around, but it was too late. The Quick Attack made Prescott too fast. There was a fast of yellow, and my Pikachu tackled the Axew, taking him down to the ground.

"Nice," I said. "Alice, get a Fairy Wind off!"

"Ivy!" Alice rushed forward, and summoned the light pink rush of air. Prescott used another Quick Attack to return to my side, avoiding the attack.

The Axew was not amused. "Axe!" It jumped to its feet, only to get knocked back down by the Fairy Wind. "Axew!" It cried. Apparently, Fairy deals a decent amount of damage to Dragon. Wonder why that happens.

"Nice shot." Alice smiled at my compliment. Honestly, I think she's hit just about everything that she aims for with that Fairy Wind. Especially Wild Pokémon and not me. That's a good thing. "Think it's weak enough?"

"Axew!" The little dragon Pokémon crawled back to its feet, and reared back. It roared, and then let loose a huge wave of pure blue fire.

"Holy-" I hit the dirt, covering my face. I could feel the heat from the fire on my back. Trust me, I'm not getting my face burned again. Once is enough. "Stupid Dragon Rage," I muttered, when the fire had stopped. Prescott was laying on the ground next to me, nearly knocked out by the attack. Alice was completely fine.

"Pika..." Prescott smiled weakly at me. I smiled back.

"Here," I said, returning him to his PokéBall. "Get some rest. Alice and I can take care of this from here." I pushed myself back to my feet, and prepared the empty PokéBall. "Alright, Alice, one more Fairy Wind."

Alice stepped froward, grinning rather evilly at the Axew. The dragon let out another Dragon Rage. Alice just stood there and took it like a man… or well, like a Fairy Type. Completely unharmed. Alice smiled smugly. "Saur."

"Zew…" muttered the Axew, lowering its head. I think this was the point where Axew realized that it didn't stand a chance.

Alice's next Fairy Wind did the Axew in. It was down and out. Struggling to get back to its feet. Perfect. I threw the PokéBall. Axew was sucked into the ball, which wiggled on the ground. One, two…

The Axew apparently found its second wind. It burst out of the PokéBall, raring to go. "Zew!" The blue fire of the Dragon Rage burned out of the corners of its mouth. Kinda intimidating, but with a Fairy-Type, it really wasn't a big deal.

"Okay, that wasn't what I expected," I remarked. "Alice, attack again… use what you want. Don't hurt it too bad, though, okay?" I guess it wasn't weak enough. But it had just taken two super-effective attacks… must be tougher than I thought.

"Axew!" All of a sudden, there was a blur of green in the air as the Axew lept up, bringing its claws back, anger in its eyes. An anger I knew pretty well. I just hope he's not another Henry. "Axew!" He began wailing on Alice with his claws, who had been completely caught off guard.

Alice fired off another Fairy Wind, blowing the Axew off of her. The little dragon hit the ground pretty hard, rolling backwards several feet. It lay on the ground for several seconds, before slowly pushing itself back up.

It just doesn't give in, does it? Time for PokéBall number two.

I threw the ball, and Axew was sucked in. The red and white sphere shook on the ground a couple of times, before becoming completely still. A couple of seconds passed and the Axew didn't break out.

Huh.

We did it. That went better than expected.

I smiled, and kneeled down to Alice. "Nailed it, girl," I said, holding my hand out to her. She smiled in response and licked my hand. Oh, well, I was going for the high-five, but that works, too.

"Perfect!" The cameraman came running up, struggling with the camera on his shoulder. "You were absolutely perfect! Splendid! Expertly done!" He made several motions to the helicopter above, and it flew away a few seconds later. "The boss is going to be pleased with this!"

"Good for him." As long as he's signing my paycheck, I happy that he's happy. "Now for Axew." I bent down, and picked up Axew's PokéBall. Now, for the hardest part of catching a new Pokémon.

What the heck am I going to name it?

* * *

My homecoming party was a little underwhelming. Ally simply stood outside of the broadcasting center, mildly clapping as I held up the fourth PokéBall. Martin was there, too, but he was sitting on a bench on the opposite side of the door. His Bidoof lay across his lap, sleeping peacefully.

"See?" Ally said, with that conceited smart girl look on her face. You know, the one that looks so damn punchable? "I knew that you could do it. And now you have a pretty good advantage over Orion."

Oh, right. I have to win a Gym Badge. Why? I don't know. Because the Gym's there? Honestly, I didn't really care about the badge. I have more important things to worry about. "Um… yeah. I guess he can't beat the beast that is Axew," I muttered. "So… you're the resident expert on Pokémon, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Just a quick question."

I sent out the Axew for the first time. It looked around, taking in the difference from the world that it had left. It didn't seem mad at getting caught… which I guess is a good thing. It looked up at me, looking me over. It finally just grunted a small grunt of approval. I gave it a warm smile in return. "So…" I looked back up at the blonde genius. "You wouldn't happen to know if it's a male or female… would you?"

Ally just chuckled. "It's a male, I can tell you that."

"Really? How do you know?"

"Um… if you don't know by now, then I'm not going to be the one to explain it to you."

Oh. "Nah, I think I'm good."

On to the second thing. "Well, then, I don't know what to name him, then. Any suggestions?"

Ally looked down at the little Axew. "Hm… It would have to be something cool..." she rubbed her chin. I'm sure that if she had a beard, she probably would've stroked it. "What about your other Pokémon? Where did their names come from?"

Now that is a good question. "Alice and Prescott… well, the names just kinda happened," I said. "Alice just popped into my mind one minute, and then later so did Prescott. They just felt so… right together." I knew that deep down, those two words had an important meaning. Somehow. "And Henry… well, he already had the name when I got him."

"Well, that's not going to help much." Ally frowned, crouching down in front of my newest teammate. Axew promptly shied away from her, hiding himself behind a potted plant. "You know, he kinda looks like a Benjamin to me."

"Benjamin?" That seemingly came out of nowhere. Kinda like Prescott. But I came up with that name, so it's okay. "Um… why?"

"Because, I was listening to a song by someone named Benjamin, and it was the only thing that I could think of at the moment." Ally shrugged. "A genius though I may be, sometimes I do lack some creativity."

"You don't say." I turned to the shy, quiet kid sitting off to the side. "Hey, Martin. What do you think? You think this Axew looks like a Benjamin?"

Martin slowly looked over, avoiding eye contact. "Um… well…" he adjusted his glasses, looking up at me, but still visually avoiding Ally. "I think Axel would fit him better. You know, it sounds a little cooler… Like that guy in Kingdom Hearts."

Axel? Hm…

"I like it," I replied, mostly because it wasn't Ally's suggestion. Truthfully, I didn't really care that much about what Axew's name was, as long as he liked it and as long as he kicked Orion's skinny little butt. "That's so much better than Benjamin."

The blonde genius glared at me. "Really? Axel? For an Axew? That's a pretty short jump – an easy name to choose. I'm pretty sure that everyone has an Axew named Axel." She folded her arms. "That's just not very creative."

I smirked. "Well, a genius though I may be, sometimes I do lack some creativity."

* * *

The inside of the Gym was… well, exactly as I remembered it. Same grass, same trees, same Sudowoodo attacking the same guy. I figured he would've learned from the last time, but I guess I was wrong.

I walked up to the nice little battlefield alone. Martin was watching from the small bleachers on either side, while Ally had simply refused to even enter the place. Not that I blame her. She wrote me a small note with a few basic strategies to combat Orion, though. So that was helpful. Or it would've been if she hadn't written in Latin.

Orion still had his rock on the pedestal. Oddly enough, there was a glass of lemonade sitting next to the rock, complete with a straw and one of those little umbrella thingies. I rolled my eyes. I had heard the rock talk last time, but if the thing could actually drink lemonade, I would eat my hat. That is, if I had a hat. Come to think of it, a hat would be pretty nice. I need to get a hat.

"Back again?" asked the young Gym Leader, lifting up his sunglasses. The sunroof was already open. "Are you going to keep that Heatmor of yours under control this time?" he asked, taking a sip of his own lemonade. "I don't think that my Vulpix wants to be on the bad end of an attempted murder again."

"Um… yeah. No problem." If I was lucky, I wouldn't even need Henry for this battle. Axel might be strong enough to take on a few of them alone. "Sorry again about that."

He waved it off. "No big deal. I've seen far tougher than that coming through here," remarked the little kid. "But they usually had total control over their Pokémon." He pulled out his first PokéBall. "So… shall we get started again?"

I nudged Prescott forward with my foot. I know, it's the first time that he wasn't riding on my shoulder. The Pikachu took his position, cracking his knuckles. "Let's shall," I replied, looking the Gym Leader in the eye. He wasn't intimidated. I was. I was terrified as all hell, but I wasn't going to let him know that.

"Then Vulpix, you're up!" The small, six-tailed fox appeared on the field, and let loose a small wave of flames in anticipation. Great. That looks fun, in the most sarcastic sense. "Ladies first."

"You're such a gentleman," I said. "But it wouldn't have mattered 's the thing about Prescott. Even if Orion took the first turn, I still would've struck first. "Prescott, use Quick Attack!"

"Pika pika!" He bolted off, becoming nothing more than a quick blur of yellow. He started zig-zagging toward the Vulpix. The fire-fox was looking back and forth, trying to keep up with Prescott. It was doing a good job, there for a minute, but was thrown off when Prescott didn't zag. "Pikachu!" Prescott slammed into the side of Vulpix, knocking it to the ground.

I blinked. That was impressive. Prescott's been practicing.

"Flamethrower!" Okay, apparently Orion wasn't holding back anymore. The little Vulpix reared back, and then let loose a rather large stream of fire. I could feel the heat from the other side of the battlefield. It was pretty intense…

If only I had some marshmallows...

Prescott again dashed out of the way as a quick blur of yellow fur. Wait… blur… fur… Hey! I could be a poet! I shook my head. "Focus, Alyssa. Don't be an ass now." The huge assault of flames just bypassed my Pikachu, leaving him completely unharmed. He's getting really good at this. "Nice dodge, Prescott!"

He smiled back at me. "Pika!"

Orion nodded approvingly. "You've definitely improved," he said. Then the red-haired kid turned to his rock. "Right, dude?" There was an unsurprising silence that followed. Orion nodded. "Of course. You're right. I should focus on this battle."

Yeah… talking to his rock. That's still a little weird. I mean, I'm pretty sure that I've heard the rock speak once, but that's probably just because I'm a crazy lunatic. But I digress. We've got a battle to win.

"Prescott, use another Quick Attack!"

"Pika piii!" The Pikachu rushed forward, and struck the Vulpix. It squeaked in pain, which is either a sign that I'm winning or I'm about to sued by the People Ethically Treating Pokémon group. I think it's the first one, though.

The Vulpix fell over on its side. The little fire-fox was panting heavily, worn out by the battle. I blinked in surprise. Well… that was a lot easier than I had expected. I was expecting a little bit more fire out of that thing. I shrugged. Oh well, why complain?

"Darn," Orion muttered, recalling his fallen Vulpix. "I knew I should've healed him up before battling."

I sighed. "Wait… Vulpix was tired?"

"Yeah, he fought three battles before you came in."

I frowned. Well, so much for feeling accomplished. Prescott muttered some Pikachu profanity under his breath. He wasn't all that fond about this new development either. "Well, look on the bright side, buddy," I said, scratching him behind the ears. "At least you beat him."

"Pika..." He tried to smile, but I knew that he was disappointed. I was too. There's really no accomplishment in beating a weakened Pokémon. Actually, I think it was more insulting than anything. He waddled over to my side, pouting.

"That's one down," Orion remarked, pulling out his second PokéBall. "But can you take on this next one?" He threw the small ball onto the field, and a Pokémon that vaguely resembled Alice appeared. "Go, Ivysuar!"

Hm. Now this could get a little interesting. "How about a little Ivysaur on Ivysaur action?" I asked, taking Alice's PokéBall in my hand. "All's fair and even..." I smirked, releasing her from her ball. "Well… kinda." Psychic-Type Ivysaur beats Poison-Type Ivysaur. Checkmate again, Orion.

"Ivysaur, use Solar Beam!"

Oh… well then. Maybe that's just check.

"Alice, Confusion!"

As my Delta Ivysaur began forming the pink glowy energy, the opposing regular Ivysaur gathered a huge amount of solar energy above it's bulb, and fired it off, straight at Alice. Apparently, and I didn't realize this until just now, having exposure to the sunlight really decreases the amount of time that it takes to charge up a Solar Beam.

Would've been nice to know beforehand.

"Saur!" Alice's attack dissipated as she took a full-on headshot from the Solar Beam. She huddled up into a little ball and braced herself. I do have to give her some credit. She was able to pull through and endure it. "Saur..." the pink Ivysaur muttered, pushing herself to her feet.

"You okay, Alice?"

"Saur." Alice quickly charged up another Confusion and shot it off. Orion's Ivysaur squealed upon impact. It actually squealed, you know, like a little Tepig. It was kinda funny at first, then I realized that I had just wounded the poor Ivysaur, and that kinda killed the comic relief.

Damn… why is this even a thing?

"You… uh, you're gonna have to do better than that!" Orion said, placing his hands on his hips. "It takes a little more than a Confusion to take us out!" Then the little Gym Leader paused, his eyes slowly moving over to his rock. And he huffed. "Hey! That was one time. _One time_!" the little leader snapped at the rock. "Oh come on… Let's see you fight in a battle! Oh wait… that's right… you're a friggin rock!"

Ah… okay... I rubbed by arm. Taking a quick break to talk to his rock. Cool beans. "Well… um… we're still battling… you know. There's no need to get into a second fight with a rock." This kid though. "Can you at least wait until we're finished here?"

"Oh, right. Sorry..." Orion rubbed the back of his neck. "Sometimes he gets to be a little annoying… so I have to yell at him. But don't worry, we're still cool. He doesn't hate me or anything."

That's not why I'm worried. "It's fine. Let's just finish this up."

"Agreed!" Orion jumped up and pointed at Alice. "Ivysaur, Razor Leaf! Let's go!"

"Alice, Confusion! Again!"

The two attacks each struck the opposing Pokémon. Both Ivysaurs cried out with pain and were knocked onto their backs. Ooh, that had to hurt. Maybe sting a little. Alice wasn't looking to hot before this attack…

When the smoke cleared, both Pokémon were knocked out. Okay… there wasn't any smoke, I just said that for the dramatic effect. There was some weird pink aura left from the Confusion attack, curling around in the air above Orion's Ivysaur, but not any actual smoke.

"Okay… so not a checkmate," I muttered, returning the now-fainted Alice to her PokéBall. "So… we're both down to two, then?" I was certainly hoping that wasn't the case… since Henry's really a stick in the mud. A really pissed-off, murderous stick in the mud. And Axel hasn't seen any action to date… so he might not be ready for a Gym battle.

"Looks that way," Orion replied, taking out his third PokéBall. "I might be down two, but I'm still going strong. Beating me won't be easy!" He tossed out yet another generic red and white PokéBall onto the field. "Go Fletchinder!" The fire-bird popped out, and quickly made a show of shooting fire out of its beak. Yeah… that's kinda intimidating.

Erm… I looked down at my two remaining PokéBalls. Henry and Axel. Um… Drat. I'll guess I'll just pick at random… I closed my eyes and tossed them around in my hands a few times – I didn't know I could juggle – and held up my left hand. Slowly cracking my eye open… dammit.

I sighed. It just had to be the Great Ball, didn't it? "Well, here goes nothing," I said, mustering up all the courage I could find. I had to dig into some pretty dark places for some of that courage, too. I mean, after all, I would have to use him at one point right? If he didn't trust me, right? "Please, just listen to me for once," I whispered to the PokéBall.

A few seconds later, the very large and very mean Heatmor appeared on the field. Orion did a double-take, followed by a scrowl. "That thing again? Please tell me you've tamed it."

"Hey, I know he wasn't cool last time, but this is his last chance," I said, talking more to Henry than to Orion. "If he steps out of line again..." I didn't finish the threat. I didn't know how. I couldn't threaten to let him go – that's probably what Henry wanted. So I just coughed. "I'll deal with him."

"You better." Orion folded his arms. He didn't look convinced. "Fletch, Ariel Ace." His bird chirped, and flapped its wings, coming in for the kill. Or well, at least for some damage. I think Henry could withstand it.

And he did. He stood there and took it like a man. Henry barely even flinched when he got hit by the Fletchinder. The heavy Heatmor just growled and lashed out with his claw. The Fletchinder just flew over it, returning to Orion's side.

"Hey, watch it," I told Henry. I don't need him to go ape again. "Just use Slash, and don't overdo it, okay?"

The Heatmor just huffed some smoke. "Heat." He raised his claw and jumped out toward the Fletchinder. Henry swiped out, and came so close to hitting the Fletchinder. But the bird flew up and missed the Heatmor's heavy claw, and squawked a laugh at Henry.

Which, of course, set Henry off like a bomb.

"Heat!" the Heatmor ran forward, swinging viciously at the Fletchinder. "Henry! Calm down!" I shouted. He's not going to listen, is he? Henry looked back and spat a small puff of flames in my direction. Nope. Guess not.

Orion's Fletchinder began fluttering around the battlefield, followed closely by the raging Henry, still lashing out at every chance. "Henry, stop! Now!" Still won't listen… The bird seemed agile enough to avoid all of the attacks, which was only making Henry madder.

"I thought you said you had that thing under control," Orion said, folding his arms while shooting me a rather stern glare for a kid. "It doesn't look like you have that thing under your control."

"Well..." I tried to think of a response, but couldn't. So I huffed. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that-"

"Heatmor!" Henry growled in rage. Apparently, Fletchinder had gotten into taunting Henry at this point, and even shot some flames into his eyes. Henry stepped back, huffing heavily, anger seething from every pore in his body.

Oh no… I've seen that look before… "Henry! Don't-"

"Heat!" My Heatmor raised both of his hands over his head, and rushed forward. Fletchinder tried to fly up at the last possible second, but wasn't fast enough. Oh hell... Henry slammed his fists down on the poor bird, knocking down on the ground – hard.

I bit my lip, holding back the swear that I was about to let out. And I failed. "Son of a bitch…" I muttered. I recalled Henry to his Great Ball as quick as I could. I'm done with him. And I mean _done_ done.

If he's not going to listen to me, then I'm not going to bother keeping him around.

There was a dead silence in the Gym. All of the other trainers were staring at the battlefield as Orion rushed over to his fallen Pokémon. He wasted no time in pulling out a Super Potion and healing his Fletchinder. The bird weakly squawked, and slowly got up to its feet.

At least it's okay.

I turned around, feeling every set of eyes in the Gym digging into my soul, and walked out.

* * *

It took nearly half an hour, but I found a nice clearing in the forests north of Suntouched City. It might not have been the ideal place for this, but then again… something like this… is there really ever a good place? This… no trainer liked having to do this.

"I tried so hard..." I said, looking down at the Great Ball. "I was willing to give you chance after chance, but you just wouldn't listen – you wouldn't change." The sun was getting ready to set on the horizon, and a couple of stars poked out through the cloudy sky.

Any other day, and I would've thought that it was beautiful.

And then I let out a huge breath. No point in delaying… right?

I let Henry out of his Great Ball for the last time. The Heatmor looked around at the surroundings before uttering an ambiguous "heat" in complete unamusement.

"You like it here, Henry?" I asked, folding my arms. "It's a nice place, isn't it?"

"Heat."

"You better like it. This is your new home."

"Heat?"

I grunted. "Oh, don't even act surprised." He had to know that this was going to happen. I'm sure this is exactly what he wanted, anyway. "I've tried and I've tried and I've tried to get you to listen to me. But you just won't."

Henry huffed. A small puff of smoke curled up from his mouth. He looked completely unfazed. He usually did, unless he was rampaging against another Pokémon.

"So if you're not going to listen to me, to let me train you, then why should I keep you around?" There. I said it. And right to his face. I don't care if he was still that cold-blooded killer that he was when I first caught him. It was something that needed to be said.

The hulking Heatmor just stood there, glaring at me. "...heat?"

"Look, it's probably best that we go our separate ways." I looked down. There was a small rock there. So I kicked it lightly. "Trainers and their Pokémon… they're supposed to have a bond – to listen to each other. To respect each other. But it's clear that we don't have that type of relationship."

Henry actually looked shocked. I think. There was an expression on his face that I'd never seen before. He tilted his head. "Heat?"

"Please… don't be upset. It's not your fault." It had taken me a while, but I think I realized what the problem was. "I'm just not a good trainer. I never have been, and I never will be. But I don't want to take you down with me." I nodded toward the forest. "It's a little far from your home, but I think you'll like it here more than traveling here with me."

"Heat." The Pokémon looked toward the forest around us. "Heat..." The stared back at me. "Heat!" he growled, apparently pissed off at something. Shocker there.

I balled up my fists. "Hey, it's not like I like this, either. I really don't." Geez, what ticked him off? I thought he'd be happy about getting set free. "I hate having to do this, but it's obvious that you don't want to be on my team. You just get mad and rage at everything and completely disregard everything I say. And I'm sick and tired of having to deal with it."

Henry huffed. "Heat!"

He was getting angrier and angrier, and that was starting to make me angry. "I don't need some rampaging psychopath attempting to kill every opponent he faces!" I threw the Great Ball to the ground. And I stepped on it. Hard.

It cracked under my feet, shattering into hundreds of little pieces with a loud crunch. You'd think they'd make such a valuable object out of something a little stronger, but I guess not. I ground my foot into the shards, breaking them even farther.

"There. You're free. You're not one of my Pokémon anymore."

And that pissed off the Heatmor.

"Heat!" Smoke poured from the corners of his mouth, and then he fired at large ball of fire at me. "Heatmor!"

I ducked down, and was completely unharmed by the flames. And I snapped. "Trying to kill something? That's nothing new!" That might not have helped in the situation, but I was pissed and that was the last straw. "Why even bother?" I touched the barely visible burn marks around my eyes. "It's not like you were able to finish the job the first time!"

"Heat!"

"No, just go!" I screamed, pointing to the woods. "Just leave! Go away! You're just a pathetic excuse for a Pokémon! You don't about anything or anyone but yourself! You think you're the best – but you're not! You're the worst! I don't ever want to see you again!"

"Heat..." Henry stood there, unmoving. Fire still burned out of his mouth, and he was huffing really hard.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

Then Henry turned around and walked out of my life.

I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. Why had that been so hard? Why was he mad that he was getting released. I shook my head. I don't care. He's not going to cause me problems anymore.

I managed to hold myself together as I walked back into Suntouched City. I wasn't until I went up to my room and dropped down on my bed that I burst into tears.

* * *

**Hoo boy. It's been a while. And I do apologize for that. Not for the long break – I knew that was coming – but for not getting this chapter up sooner, much sooner, to tell you guys. I decided to put this story on hiatus for the rest of my senior year so I could focus more on school, and work on this over the summer. Which I did. But I neglected to realize that college stuff was going to take up most of my summer. And when it didn't, I was busy on other things.**

**Fortunately, I'm going to a community college, and my schedule is pretty wide open, so I do have quite a bit of free time to write, or to work on other projects. That's a plus. But still it is college, and that means long and boring classes.**

**So I'm sorry for going MIA on you guys like that. I know it's something that I'm prone to doing, but I should've gone ahead and given the heads up. And I'm certainly going to try get back into the swing of things. I just kinda needed a bit of a break from writing. Hopefully things will pick back up soon.**

**Also, slightly smaller side note, I like to listen to music as I write this stuff. Sometimes it gets a little bit inspirational. So if you all know of any songs that you like, let me know. I'm always looking for new additions to my playlist.**

**But alas, until next time, which will hopefully be soon.**


	14. Perfection

**And we're back with what is the longest chapter of the story thus far! I actually think it's the longest chapter I've ever written for any story!**

**WyldClaw: **Thanks man. College is a little rough, but so far it hasn't been that bad. Fortunately, in a couple more weeks, my sole Monday and Wednesday class will be over, meaning that I'll have Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays off. Which is pretty nice. More time to write.

**Nightkat11:** Well, sometimes you just have to let things go. Alyssa had to let Henry go. That's just how it happens sometimes. And I did see your OC in the previous review. I was going to PM you about it, but you seem to have that feature disabled. But don't worry, I haven't ignored it. I'll try to use her at one point, but I don't think she'll be more than a cameo.

**Magicanus:** Ye. Axew was an 'on the moment' kind of decision. Originally, Alyssa's team was going to be my team from my first playthrough, but since I had to start a second playthrough for this story, I thought I might mix it up a little bit. Hence the departure of Herny and the addition of Axew. And yes, we finally finish with Suntouched this chapter. Trust me, I'm as excited as you are! And that's an interesting observation – about the personality of character's and Alyssa's Pokemon. I personally didn't plan that. It just worked out like that.

* * *

_Chapter Fourteen: Perfection_

I was up early the next morning, heading upward to the Suntouched City Gym. Not for another rematch, but for an apology. I didn't think Orion would forgive me, but I still needed to try. After all, what with Little Miss Dream Girl talking about causes and effects and what not I didn't want to risk feeling guilty for the rest of my life.

Or something like that. I mean, I felt like the right thing to do, right?

Martin and Ally were no where to be seen – I hadn't seen them since before the Gym battle yesterday. Seriously, where were they? What were they doing? They better not be getting it on somewhere. I honestly don't think I can put up with that for a whole friggin' journey.

Does that sound a bit harsh? Maybe. All I'm going to say is that I don't want to end up being the third wheel on this thing. It sucks being alone.

I walked into the Gym for the third time in as many days and – jeez, doesn't that guy ever learn not to water Sudowoodo?- and slowly walked up to the battlefield. Orion wasn't there, but the rock was sitting still on the pedestal, looking all… rockish.

I stood there or a few moments, casually looking around. There wasn't much of anything going on. I looked over at the rock, awkwardly smiled at it. Why? I don't know. Maybe it really was alive. Might was well be nice to it.

"So… is Orion in?" I asked the rock. I mean, in the off-chance that it was alive, it might some small talk to break the boredom around here. "How's the weather? Sunny? That's nice." The rock didn't answer. I shrugged. What had I been expecting?

The Gym was quiet and empty this early in the morning. It looked like it was just me and Sudowoodo guy over there, getting blasted by another rock. So I waited patiently. Fifteen minutes passed, and still nothing had changed. No Orion. A few more random people had come in to tend to the many plants, but no one of importance.

"Geez, where is that kid, anyway?" I sighed. This is boring. "Bet you get bored too, just sitting there," I said to the rock, disregarding that my sanity told me not to. I walked up to it and stared down into the near perfect white void of the rock.

It was almost kinda of mesmerizing. The rock was a perfect sphere, a brilliant white, and seemed to be radiating power. Kinda like a crystal ball. It certainly had a mystical feel to it. Maybe that's why Orion likes it so much.

That's when the all-too-human curiosity set in. I slowly reached my finger out and touched the stone. Believe it or not… it felt like a stone. I know – shocker. It was smooth and cool to the touch. "Huh." Again, I didn't know what I had been expecting. "Oh well."

Then a rather hot blue flame flashed where my finger touched. "Holy balls!" I screamed falling flat on my butt. That scared the crap outta me. I stuck my now-burnt finger in my mouth, hoping to soothe the burning sensation.

I looked back at the rock. "The hell?" There was a pair of large blue eyes staring at me from within the depths of the stone. We maintained eye contact for several seconds, before the blue eyes slowly faded away.

Now I'm convinced. That is not an ordinary rock.

"Yeah, he does that from time to time." Orion walked up behind me, wearing a rather smug grin. "He doesn't really like people touching him. He's fine with me, but just me. He kinda just hates everyone else."

"I noticed," I grunted, getting back on my feet. "You should tell him not to play with fire. First my eyes, now my finger, I'm tired of getting burned."

Orion shrugged. "Eh, that's just how he is. No changing that." The kid Leader walked over to the chair next to the pedestal and plopped down. "So… what brings you back here again? Are you seriously looking for another rematch?"

"Not really… I just wanted to come by and apologize for the incident yesterday. I thought I could keep Henry under control, but-"

"But you were completely and totally wrong." Orion finished. He folded his arms, glaring at me. "Which probably isn't something new." Wow. Jerk. He's not wrong. But still. Jerk. "Tell me you at least did _something_ about that thing. There's no way that you'll be able to keep it around much longer."

"I let him go," I replied, pulling out my three PokéBalls. No Great Ball. "It was kinda hard to do, but it had to be done." Orion's face relaxed a little, relieved by the news. I forced a smile. "Like I said, I just wanted to come by and apologize for what happened."

A faint smile appeared on Orion's face. "That's very mature of you."

That's a bold claim coming from the ten-year-old who talks to a rock. But I didn't say that out loud. "Yeah, it is," I nodded. "We all grow up a little bit everyday, and I guess I just needed to grow a little bit more yesterday." There was a bit of a pause, and I looked down, shuffling my feet. "Well, yeah. I just want to say that. I'm glad that you were so understanding... I'm gonna go now."

I turned my back and started walking toward the door.

"Wait." Orion walked up behind me. I stopped and turned around. "You had to learn a pretty hard lesson," said the kid. "You had to learn that you won't always be able to handle every single Pokémon that you capture… and that's a pretty vital lesson for a trainer to learn." He held out a small, shiny object. "Here."

"What… what is it?"

"It's the Thermal Badge," Orion answered, smile creasing the corner of his mouth. "It's the badge you would've obtained if you had actually beat me in battle. Given what's happened recently, I think you've more than earned it."

I frowned. But then I smiled. Orion might be a little bit rough around the edge, what with being ten and talking to a rock, but he really knew how to make a gal feel better when she was down. "Thanks, Orion," I said, reaching out for the badge. "It really means-"

"Psyche!" Orion pulled his hand back, yanking the badge out of my reach. "Oh come on! Don't tell me you thought it would be that easy!"

Oh. Wow. Should've seen that one coming. I cursed myself. "Of course not! I was just, you know, playing along." Holy crap, I totally fell for it. But I'm not going to tell him that. So I bit my lip and tried to be cool. "I honestly doubt that Gym Leaders would just give away badges like that."

"Oh stop lying! You totally fell for it and you know it!"

"No I didn't!" Yes, I totally did. "What do you think I am? An idiot?"

"Yes."

I blinked. Okay, I walked into that one. "Okay… fine. I fell for it," I admitted, folding my arms. "Does that make you happy?"

Orion smirked. "Yep." I sighed. Kids today, am I right? "But," he went on, placing his hands on his hips, "if you still really want the badge, how about we go for round three?" His smirk got even larger and even more confident and condescending. "We'll make it nice and simple. One-on-one." Orion held up a single PokéBall. "I don't usually use this guy in my normal Gym battles, and he's been itching for a fight. So, what do you say? Do you accept my challenge?"

"I thought trainers were supposed to challenge the Gym Leader, not the other way around," I frowned, but then shrugged. Eh, who cares? "Well, I accept!" I answered, pulling out Axel's PokéBall. He was my one Pokémon that Orion hadn't seen. "After all, you know what they say: the third time's the charm!"

"Okay, then bring it!" Orion jumped back to his side of the battlefield, and flung his PokéBall onto the ground. "Go Charmeleon!" The evolved form of Charmander appeared on the field, looking a little bit menacing. Not as bad as Damian's Delta Charmeleon – Orion's actually looked, you know, _alive_ – but it was still a little intimidating.

"It's show time, Axel!" I said, releasing my Axew onto the field for the first time.

Axel yawned and stretched, scratching his butt with a tired look in his eyes. He looked around, getting a feel of his surroundings, but instantly froze when his eyes landed on the Charmeleon. The Axew tilted his head. "Zew?"

I nodded. "Yep, that's your first opponent. You think you can take him?"

"Zew."

"Was that a yes or a no?"

"Zew."

"I'm going to take that as a yes." I pointed at the Charmeleon. "Dragon Rage!"

Axel opened his tiny mouth to say something, but then just shrugged. "Zew!" He fired a wave of blue flames toward the Charmeleon.

"Flamethrower!" Orion's Charmeleon reared back blew out a stream of fire. The two attacks collided, and canceled each other out, causing a massive explosion of red and blue flames.

I covered my face with my hands, feeling the heat from the attacks. "Whoo, that's rather warm," I muttered. "Axel, Dual Chop!"

"Zew!" Both of Axel's hands began glowing a bright blue color, and the little Axew rushed through the still hanging cloud of smoke and jumped up. He brought his first fist down on Charmeleon's head, and landed and did a nice uppercut to Charmeleon's gut with his other hand.

"Char!" Charmeleon hissed as he doubled over, hand flying to his stomach. He coughed out a bit of smoke, and then cracked his knuckles as he stood up, ready to get back in the fight.

"Iron Tail!"

The little red dragon Pokémon growled and swirled around, slamming it's steeled tail into Axel. "Zew!" The even smaller drag-green dragon went flying to the side, slamming into the wall. That looked painful…

"Axel… you alright?"

"Zew!" My little dragon jumped up, fury written all over his face. He limped back to my side of the battlefield, puffing little flames of blue fire from his mouth. Oh, please don't let him turn out to be another Henry. Cause I'm _done_ with that shit.

"Okay. Then use Dragon Rage again!"

"Zew!"

"Charmeleon! Flamethrower!"

Once again, the attacks collided and exploded. Apparently Orion had dealt with enough Axews with Dragon Rage that he knew exactly how to counter the completely over-powered move. Lucky me.

Axel didn't even need to wait for my command. He rushed through the smoke and landed another Dual Chop on the Charmeleon. "Zew!" He scrambled back, barely avoiding another Iron Tail.

Orion still had his smug smile, but there was a bit of concern in his eyes. "You think you're doing so well?" the Leader kid asked, putting his hands on his hips. "But it's time to turn up the heat!" Ugh, what a cliché line. "Charmeleon! Fire Blast!"

Charmeleon growled with an evil grin, then jumped up in to the air (adding in a nice ballerina twirl as well), and launched a huge ball of fire at Axel.

The little Axew braced himself for impact, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. The attack hit, causing yet another huge explosion of fire on the battlefield. A charred Axel slid across the ground on his stomach, coming to a rest next to my foot.

It was quiet for a few seconds. A couple of embers from the blast had spread to the grass and flowers kept in the Gym, but the people armed with watering cans made quick work of that. Axel wasn't moving.

Oh balls. That means that we're going to have to try _again_ for that stupid badge. Or… you know… I could just forget about it. I mean, I don't really need -

"Zew..." Axel coughed, slowly getting to his feet. He brushed the ash off of him and rolled his shoulders. "Axew," he muttered, getting ready to get back into the fray.

I blinked, impressed. That's one tough cookie. He's getting some brownie points for this later. Aw… that reminds me… I'm out of brownies… I shook my head. "Geez, get your head in the game girl." I've got to watch that. Stupid thought processes.

"Well well, still in the fight," Orion commented, still acting like he had the upper hand – I mean, he did, but still a little too much arrogance in his tone - "Very few Pokémon ever last this long against Charmeleon here. You must be raising him well."

"Or not at all," I muttered under my breath. I hadn't even had the Axew for a full day yet. "Raising Dragons can be a bit challenging, but it's worth the effort,"I said, this time more audibly. Alright, time to finish this. "Axel, hit him with another Dual Chop!"

"Zew!" Axel's hands began glowing blue with Dragon energy, and he ran forward, preparing to strike the Charmeleon.

But, apparently Orion wasn't going to let that happen. "Charmeleon! Metal Claw!"

The fire-dragon rasied one of its large claws over its head, and it took on a shiny steel hue as he swiped straight down at my incoming Axew. With a loud slashing sound, Axel stopped cold, and fell backward. He landed face up, eyes close, still as a corpse.

This time the colorful swear words left my mouth. I honestly thought Axel could do it… maybe a little more training could do it. Or we could just blow this place off until I have a freakin' Blastoise or something like that.

"Well, you tried," Orion said, his so-much-more-holier-than-thou tone ramped up to eleven. "And it was a good effort – I'll admit that. Charmeleon here might just be the strongest Pokémon in my team. Isn't that right, Charmeleon?" The Pokémon didn't reply. "Charmeleon?"

Charmeleon was staring at the fallen Axew, with a slight tilt in his head. I frowned. Was something wrong? I get a sinking feeling that Charmeleon knows something we don't. Orion's Pokémon slowly leaned over, getting his face within a few inches of Axel's. He sniffed, scowl on his face. And then…

Axel's eyes snapped open. "Zew!" Charmeleon got a nice blast of Dragon Rage to the face at close range. The blast was enough to knock the howling Charmeleon off his feet, and crashing to the ground a couple of yards away. In other words, it was a really freakin' powerful blast.

"Axel, were you… were you playing dead?" I asked, looking down at my little dragon. He replied with a smile and a nod. Wow. Gotta give him some credit. That was a pretty gutsy move. "Well, I think it worked." I crouched down and rubbed his head and broke out into a full smile. "That was awesome!"

"Zew!"

Charmeleon hadn't gotten up – it looked it he was out for the count. Orion ran over and check. The instant fade of his smirk confirmed that Charmeleon had been knocked out. The kid just stood there, trying to think of something to say. He whirled around, facing me. "I… but he… that was… I just…" And he folded his arms and stamped his foot. "That's cheating!"

Was it? I don't recall seeing anything against it in the Pokémon League Rulebook. Then again, I don't really remember whether or not I actually read the rulebook. Heck, I didn't know if there even _was_ a rulebook. So I just shrugged. "Maybe." Okay, not much of an answer, but I didn't really have one.

"You're disqualified!" The Leader kid shouted. "I'm not giving you the Thermal Badge!" He opened his mouth to shout something else, but stopped and looked over to his rock. "What? But… but she cheated! You saw it!"

Dead silence.

"No! I'm the leader here! I'm making the call!"

Still silence.

"I don't care what you think! It was not fair and square!"

I picked up a pretty confused Axel and took a step backward, looking for a way to get out unnoticed. Trust me, I am not going to get caught in them middle of this fight. Boy vs Rock. Who would win? I'm not about to find out.

Orion turned on his heel and glared at the stone. "No! This is my Gym! I'm running this place, and I decided who gets the badge and who doesn't! And she doesn't!"

"_Orion!"_ a deep, angry voice growled from within the rock. _"Give to it her! She earned it! Stop being childish!"_

And the dead silence was back.

At first, I thought it was just like before, where I had heard it in my head. But then I noticed that literally everyone in the Gym was looking right toward Orion and that stone. I let out a breath. That stone must've been pissed to actually shout.

Orion stood there, looking around at everyone looking back at him. And I kinda felt bad for him. A rock had just called this Gym Leader childish in front of everyone in the Gym. That's gotta hurt. He slowly lowered his head, and stepped over to me. "Here," he said lamely, handing the badge to me. "You've earned this."

"Well, I… thanks." I nodded, giving a sympathetic smile.

"And… and I'm sorry that I acted the way I did…" he went on, with a tone of annoyance and resignation, "and I'm sorry that I called you a cheater.. and I hope that you forgive me." It was pretty obvious that the rock was telling him what to say.

"Orion… it's okay. I forgive you." I paused. "And it was very mature of you to apologize like that. That was a very grown up thing to do." Did I know that the rock forced him to apologize? Yes. But sometimes, you've got to give pretend to be a little ignorant in some situations. To give someone a bit of a respect helps a ton.

The red-haired kid perked up, a weak smile forming on his lips. "Yeah… I guess it was..." he looked back over to the rock, before turning back to me. "I'm glad that you were so understanding." He stuck his hands in his pockets, and looked down at his feet. "I guess… I guess we all grow up a little bit each day..."

I smiled. "I guess we do."

* * *

"… and then I popped my eyes wide open and shouted surprise, and blasted him in the face with the full force of the good old Dragon Rage!" Axel finished retelling the story of the Gym battle, and plopped down on the pillow on the couch in Alyssa's Pokémon Center room.

Alyssa was in the other room with the blonde girl, apparently getting ready for a celebratory lunch. In the mean time, the trainer had let Alice and Prescott get better acquainted with their new teammate.

"Um… no offense," said a bored Prescott, draped over the opposite pillow. "That was a pretty long story… and I don't think I believe any of it."

Axel scoffed. "I'm telling you, yellow dude. It's all true. Every single word." He looked over at the Delta Ivysaur snuggled up next to Prescott's pillow. "Come on, Pinkie. You believe me, right?"

Alice shrugged. "Well, I don't want to be rude… but I am kinda with Prescott on this one. It was a well-told story, but I think you might've exaggerated a little bit."

The Pikachu snorted a laugh. "A little bit? Alice, he said he fought _three_ Charizards – two of which had _Mega Evolved__ – _by himself! With his bare hands! And don't even get me started about the part where he saved the princess from the evil Blastoise!"

"Heh heh," Axel chuckled, leaning back on his pillow. "Okay, so I might've made up some parts to it. There might've been only one Charizard, and it might've only been a Charmeleon, but my point still stands."

"...There was a point to all that?" Alice asked, glaring at him. "What was the point?"

Axel smirked. "That point was that I'm awesome."

Alice and Prescott shot each other an irritated look. "Yeah, that's good to know," the pink Ivysaur said. "It might've been a little too..." she trailed off, tilting her head to the side. "Well, it's been nice talking to you guys," Alice said, standing up and jumping down to the floor, "but I gotta go. Alyssa's mentally threatening to kill that other girl over something called a skirt. I need to go alleviate the situation. Peace." She went out the half-closed door.

The Axew sat up, watching her go. He frowned. "I didn't hear anyone calling her..." Axel looked back over to Prescott. "She was just trying to get away from us, wasn't she?" The little dragon shrugged. "Eh, who cares? I don't like Fairies anyway."

Prescott shook his head. "Nah, she's also got some Psychic capabilities. They're not as strong as an actual Psychic Pokémon's, she can still feel other people's feelings. Especially those who she's known for a while."

"Oh. That's kinda creepy." Axel leaned back again, closing his eyes. "That's _very_ creepy."

"I know," Prescott agreed. "Just watch what you think and you'll be okay."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Axel. He paused for a minute. "You two banging?"

"What?"

"You know, dancing the horizontal tango?"

All he got was a long and confused stare from Prescott.

"You know, party under the sheets?"

"I usually sleep on the floor...

Axel sighed. "You are completely hopeless, you know."

Prescott flicked his tail. "I honestly don't even know what you're asking."

"You know, are you and that pink Ivysaur doing it?"

"Doing what?"

"Each other."

"Huh?"

Axel groaned. "You know what, just forget I asked. The fact that you don't even know probably means that you haven't." He rubbed his eyes, then looked over at Prescott. "Are there any other girls on the team besides the pink Ivysaur? Like I said, Fairy ain't my type."

"Nope."

"Ugh… this adventure is gonna suck."

The door then swung open. Alice walked in, followed by a rather flustered looking Alyssa, holding down the edges of her pink skirt. "Hey guys..." said the artificially brown-haired girl, "I guess it's time we head on out."

* * *

Our celebratory lunch was nothing spectacular. We went to a rather mediocre All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet (yes, that was actually the name of it) and had a relatively normal meal. Ally and Martin pretty much had their own conversation – something about the science behind love – while I just sat there in the corner of the booth, hiding as much of myself under the table as I could while still looking normal.

This damn skirt. I hate it. That dumb genius forced me to wear it. I don't like the feeling of "openness and freedom" that Ally said skirts provided – I just felt like the whole damn world could look straight up there, if you know what I mean. I miss my pants.

"...and that should sum up why people feel these strange feelings of attachment to other people," Ally wrapped up her long-winded explanation that I certainly didn't listen to. We were walking back to the Pokémon Center, and my two fellow travelers _still_ hadn't finished talking. It was kind of annoying. Especially since _I_ had no one to talk to.

I paused in mid stride. Why does it feel cold? I know it feels a whole lot colder than before… "Um, guys… Does it feel a little bit chilly?" Seriously… it's summer and the sun is directly overhead. I was sweating on my way to the restaurant. Why do I feel so cold now?

Ally frowned, rubbing her chin and looking around. "Well… maybe a little, now that you mention it. But I wouldn't concern yourself with it. Temperatures typically do drop as the day goes on – after all, the sun doesn't stay in the sky all day long."

Martin just shrugged. "It feels a little bit colder, but not that bad."

Hm. Maybe it's just me. I am wearing a tank top and a skirt, after all. "Yeah, I guess it isn't." Why do I get the feeling that something bad is about to happen? And why do I get the feeling that I'm about to walk right into it?

I heard someone shout "Excuse me!" and then felt the full impact of someone running into me. I fell flat on my butt, but reacted quickly to make sure my skirt was still fully covering me. If I were still wearing my pants, it wouldn't have been a concern. Thanks Ally. "Hey, you okay?" I asked, looking to the other girl.

"I'm-I'm fine." She was wearing a yellow tank top with a brown skirt. On her brown-hair was a blue-green hat with a yellow ribbon tied around it. She looked kinda important. At least more so than the rest of the bland inhabitants of this town. "Sorry… but I really need to get the Gym," she apologized, standing up and taking off.

"Well, that was interesting," Ally commented, watching the girl run off, her eyes distant, thinking. "She seemed… familiar." She rubbed her chin in that way she did. "Eh, whatever. You really need to watch where you're going, Alyssa. You just ran into her."

"What?" protested Martin. "_She_ ran into Alyssa!"

Ally shook her head. "Actually, the girl was running this direction," Ally pointed down the path, "and Alyssa was walking in the adjacent direction. The point of contact was on Alyssa's front and the girl's side."

"No, the point of contact was Alyssa's side and the girl's front!" Martin said defensively. "I saw the whole thing!"

Ally scoffed. "Yeah, so did I! I was right here, one step closer to her than you were!"

"Yeah, well… my glasses are better!"

I sighed, folding my arms, still sitting on the ground. These two. They're like this more often than you think. Remember when I said they really hit it off? They did, but they still can fight about anything. "Are you two seriously going to argue about this? How about helping me up? That would be great."

"Oh, you're a big girl. You can stand up on your own," Ally snapped rather quickly.

I groaned and stood up, brushing the dirt off my legs. "Somehow, I knew that I was going to walk into trouble. I just didn't think it would be that literal."

"Ha!" Ally looked over at Martin, victorious grin on her face. "Alyssa admitted it! I was right!"

"Oh shut up."

"Both of you shut up," I said. "Now come on, let's get back to the Center and plan our next move." I turned back to the path and started walking, and -

"Hey! Look out!"

\- once again collided with a person running. Yup. Double whammy. Except this time, I was knocked flat on my back, with the other person landing on top of me. Like, perfectly on top of me. Perfectly awkwardly on top of me. I sighed with exasperation. "Ugh, remind me to never walk again. This is getting ridiculous."

"Sorry…" apologized the girl on top of me. If I were a guy, then the implications of that previous sentence would've made me a little less ticked off about the situation. "I should've watched where I was… Oh, hey Alyssa!"

I sighed. "Hey Nora."

The green-haired girl smiled. "I didn't think I'd run into you here!" she said, with an all-too-cheery smile. She paused, apparently trying to let the joke land. She frowned when it didn't. "Too obvious a joke, then?"

"It's kinda old at this point," I replied, even though Martin and Ally were cracking up in the background. That cheered Nora up a little bit.

"Oh, sorry. I was just chasing after this other girl," Nora explained. "She mentioned something about the Suntouched Gym and the-"

"Hey Nora?" I interrupted. "I hate to break up your explanation, but can I ask a question?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Can you do the explanation when you're _not_ lying on top of me in an extremely awkward position? Please?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry." She climbed off of me, and I stood up for the second time in as many minutes. "As I was saying, that girl mentioned something about the Suntouched Gym and the Cult of Perfection. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

Ally visibly tensed at the mention of the Cult. "P-Perfection?"

"Yeah, a bunch of those weirdos that keep trying to tear the world apart and rebuild it their way," said Nora. "They're a bunch of know-it-all scientists who want to - "

"I know who they are," Ally spat out. "I just didn't know they'd be here."

"You'd be surprised. Cults around here have the tendency to pop up where you least expect them," the green-haired girl went on. "They're probably hiding in every dark corner on Earth."

"I think she's right," I added in, trying to stay relevant and helpful in the conversation. After all, this is all about me. "I met their leader in Telnor Town. At Sylvan's lab." Ally snapped her head to me, about to say something, then stopped.

"And, from my experience," Nora stepped up, placing her hands on her hips. "Cults are just good for nothing assholes that need to be stopped! That's why I'm making sure everything at the Gym is okay!" She took off running in the same direction that the other girl had went. "See ya later!"

"I'm… I'm going too," Ally said, after a second, and ran after her.

Martin and I stood there for a moment. "Well, that was interesting," I said, finally breaking the silence.

"The past five minutes were interesting."

I smiled at the kid. "Dude, the past couple of _weeks_ have been interesting." I let out a breath. "Well, I hope everything is okay." Deep down inside, I desperately hoped everything was okay. As a girl on the run from a Cult, the last thing I wanted was a Cult in the same town where I slept. I don't know what Ally's interest with the Cult of Perfection is… maybe it's a science thing? "Come on," I patted Martin on the shoulder. "Let's find out where we're going next."

"We're not going after them?" Martin asked, frown on his face.

"Martin… why should we?" I asked, looking down at him. "The cultist have _killed_ people – do you really want to meet some up close and personal?" Trust me, I've had some personal experience with cultists. They're not friendly. But I didn't say that out loud.

"But..." he stared off into the distance, pushing up his glasses. "But Ally… she's our friend, right? Shouldn't we, you know, have her back?"

I bit my lip. Ooh, well-played Martin. "Well, yeah. But -"

"Then come on!" Martin shouted, breaking into a run toward the big-ass fan. "We can still catch up to her!"

"But I..." I groaned. "I'm totally going to regret this." And so I, making sure that this damned skirt kept everything covered that should be covered, ran after them.

* * *

If you think that riding a huge, completely illogical fan up to the second floor of a city sounds hard, trying doing that while being a completely self-conscious girl in a skirt. It was a nightmare, but somehow I managed.

I entered the Suntouched Gym for the fourth time in the past couple of days. There wasn't anything exciting going on. No cults, no guns, no nothing. Everyone was just going about the regular business as usual. There was that one guy cowering behind a potted plant as the Sudowoodo was stomping on a watering can. But that's normal as well.

I guess we got here before all of the excitement.

Martin, Ally, and Nora were standing by the door. "So… what's up, guys?" I asked, joining them. "We prepping to fight some baddies?"

"Well, actually, we're just waiting here, out of her way," Nora said, nodding to the girl in the blue-green hat.

The girl was pacing all over the Gym. "Orion? Orion!" she shouted. "Get out here right now! It's important!" There was no response, and the kid leader didn't show. "Argh! Orion! Where in the hell are you?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, she seems a little pissed."

Then Orion came bolting out of a side door and into the Gym. "What's wrong?" he asked, panicked look on his face. "Did someone hurt my friend?" He ran over to his rock, looking over it over. "No..." He sighed in relief. "He seems okay."

The girl grabbed Orion's wrist, pulling him to the door. "Come on! We need to go! Now!"

Orion pulled free of her grasp. "I can't just up and leave, Harmony. I have several challengers coming in today – I am Gym Leader. I have duties to these people." He noticed us, and a smile grew on his face. "And there's some challengers now. Come on over, guys. I'm ready for a challenge!"

The four of us walked over – okay, it's not me. It's definitely gotten colder – and Orion's smile grew bigger. "Hey, it's Heatmor Girl and company! Nice of you all to stop by!" He pulled one of his PokéBalls out of his pocket. "So, who's up first?"

Harmony, apparently the girl's name, grabbed him by the shoulders. "We don't have time, Orion! The Cult of Perfection is after you! We need to leave!"

That certainly seemed to get his attention. "A cult? Here?" His smile vanished fast. "And they want me?"

"That's what I heard," Harmony said. "I overheard some guys talking, and they mentioned that they were coming to take you… or something here. I don't know. But I know they're coming here." She motioned to the door. "So come on, let's get out of here."

"Yeah, that's why we're here too," I added, rubbing my arms. Holy Helix, it's gotten so cold. Did someone turn off the sun or something? Everyone else in the Gym seemed to notice the change in weather now. Martin pulled his jacket closer, while Ally shivered. Nora, Harmony, and Orion were just shrugging it off. "We're here to help you."

Orion seemed to think for a moment, before slowly nodding. "Yeah, you're right." He looked up at Harmony. "Okay, let's go! But help me with this!" The kid ran over to the pedestal with his rock and tried to lift it up. "He's a bit heavy, so I might need a second person to-"

"No, Orion!" Harmony snapped. "We don't have the time for that stupid thing! Leave it!"

"I'm not leaving my friend!"

"How cute," echoed a deep voice. A man stood on the bleachers off to the side of the Gym's battlefield. Somehow, his voice just seemed to carry across the whole building. "Seeing such devotion toward an _object_ from a child… it's heartwarming, isn't it? Especially in these cold times."

"Who… who are you?" snarled Harmony, balling her fists and stepping in between the man the Orion. "You're a cultist, are you?"

The man chuckled, walking out onto the battlefield. "Why yes, my dear, I am. My name is Taen, and I am a leading member of the Cult of Perfection." He did a theatrical bow. "Now, let's put these pleasantries aside and get down to business, shall we?"

"Alright, first order of business," Harmony said, stepping up to him. "You're going to leave my friend alone. Second order of business," she jerked her thumb toward the door. "That's the door. I want you to walking through it and never come back. Got it?"

Taen's twisted smile grew ever-so-slightly. "It's always more fun when they try to fight back," he muttered. "Well, I regret to inform you that things aren't going to happen that way. No, things are going to go much differently."

Whelp. Time to be brave. Brave but stupid. I stepped forward, still shivering in the cold. "Y-you're going t-t leave us a-alone. G-got I-it?" Stammering. Way to sound heroic.

"Ah, are we scared? Or are we just cold?" Taen asked. He took a step over to me, and looked down. "You know… you're not that bad, girl. Brave but stupid. My favorite kind of person." His smirk grew. "And that skirt makes you look absolutely gorgeous."

Oh that little…

I slapped him. Across the face. As hard as I could.

Taen stepped back in recoil, holding a hand to his cheek. The cultist promptly burst out into laughter. "I must say, I deserved that! And I do like them feisty! We must get together sometime." He reached into his jacket and held out a small slip of paper. "Here. Call me."

I glared at him.

"No?" Taen shrugged, tucking the card back in his jacket. "Your loss."

"Why are you here, _Taen_?" Ally spit out the name, as if cursing it. The blonde genius stepped to my side. "I assume that the sole purpose of this visit isn't to hook up with minors?"

The Perfection Cultists looked right back at her. "_Snarky_, are we?" He laughed to himself, as if it were an inside joke. "No, I am merely here for the rock." Taen turned to the pedestal, and the stone sitting on top of it. "Once I have it and am away… you all can go back to your normal, miserable, pathetic lives. If I don't kill you, that is."

"No!" Orion shouted, jumping between the rock and Taen. "You are _not_ taking my friend! I won't let you!"

Taen was completely unamused. "Oh, I'm not bothered by whether _you'll_ let me take it or not. I'm going to take it regardless." He folded his arms. "Now, I'm losing my patience. Please step aside."

"No!"

Harmony stood at the kid leader's side. "You're not taking the stone on our watch!" She looked over at the rest of us, apparently a call for action.

Nora was the first to react. "Yeah! We can fight you! And we will!" The green-haired girl went to their side. "Come on, Alyssa! Stand up to this cultists!"

I internally sighed. Did I want to stand up to him? No, I didn't. I want nothing to do with the cults. But did I want to look like a complete and total ass-hat and ditch them? Nope. Ergo, conflict. You know what? Screw it. I'm too cold for this stuff. "Come on, guys. Let's go." Ally, Martin and I went over to their side.

It was now a six-on-one fight. And against a cultist, too. That means we didn't have to play by the League's rules. So yeah, I feel pretty confident about our odds.

"Standing up for your friend?" Taen asked, with a nod of approval. "Admirable. But hopeless." He cleared his throat. "Now, for the last time, step aside. I'm taking the stone."

"Oh yeah?" said Harmony. "You and what army?"

Taen's smile came back. "I don't need an army." He raised a hand into the air. "But, since you asked..." he snapped his fingers together. "… why not give you the full demonstration?"

And that's when it got cold. Like, really cold. Freezing almost. I shivered hard, and then noticed the snow. It was snowing? In the middle of a summer mid-day? I looked up through the Gym's open ceiling and – _what the hell is that?_

A big – no, _huge_ – Pokémon was descending from the gray clouds. With an earth-shaking roar it lowered itself into the Gym, flying several feet off the ground. It had a mostly gray body, with large, jagged blue wings and faceplate. Cold just seemed to emanate from the beast.

"Meet my army – Kyurem," Taen said, with an elegant arm motion to the dragon. "One of the Legendary Tao Trio from Unova. As the old legends go, Kyurem can generate such cold temperatures that it can freeze fire and electricity." He chuckled again. "So, to sum it up, I am taking the stone, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

We all stood there, glaring up at the Legendary. Snow seemed to form in the air around it. Frost puffed from cracks in the icy wings, creating faint clouds that encircled the Pokémon. This thing just seemed to represent power.

Okay, I take it back. I'm no longer confident about our odds.

Harmony was the first to snap out of the awe of the Legendary Pokémon. "We… we're still not going to back down! Right?" None of us answered her. I don't think we needed to. We all knew where this was going. She paused, looking at the rest of us. "...right?"

"That's too bad… now isn't it? If you're not going to move, then I'll have to move you myself." Taen pointed a condemning finger at us. "Kyurem, Blizzard!"

The large dragon roared out, shaking the whole Gym. Kyurem reared its mighty head back, and shot out a huge wave of ice and snow and wind.

"Look out!" Harmony wrapped her arms around Ally and Martin, the two closest to her, and pulled them to the ground with her. Nora, Orion, and I weren't so fortunate.

The freezing wind knocked the three of us back several feet, pelting with with sharp, jagged shards of ice. Which wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling. I could feel the ice tearing at my skin, and balls of hail hitting me all over. This was definitely going to leave a mark.

I was on my back, looking up through the open roof into the dark clouds above the Gym. My arms stung, and I could feel small trickles of warm blood oozing from cuts. Great. I managed to sit up on my knees, and crawled over to Nora. She had some cuts and scrapes, but was otherwise okay.

Orion on the other hand…

The kid jumped up, and limp-ran toward Taen as the cultist approached the stone. There was a splatter of blood on the front of his white shirt. "Get away from my friend!" he shouted, reaching for one of his PokéBalls.

Taen smiled, shaking his head. "Sorry kid. It's a shame that the two of you have to part like this, but what's that old saying? If you love something, let it go?" He shrugged, rubbing his chin. "Something like that. You might as well let go. It's mine now." The cultist looked up at the dragon. "Kyurem."

The dragon blasted out another wave of its Blizzard attack. This one much more powerful. Dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach. Harmony was hit by a large chuck of ice, knocking her off her feet and throwing her down off the battlefield. Martin and Ally were flung against the Gym's far wall.

"Alyssa! Run!" Nora shouted, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet. She took off toward the fallen form of Harmony, quickly grabbing the girl and pulling her off to safety. It would've been nice if Nora had doubled checked that I was with her before she took off, cause things had kinda gone south over here.

"Krrr..." bellowed Kyurem as it swung its head toward me. All I could do was stare at it. The dragon's cold, judging eyes offered a small look of sympathy, before it let out another huge wave of wind and ice and hail directly at me.

"Aw shit." The cold wind caused me to stumble for balance, which was pretty hard thanks to the hail. It was the small chunks at first, but the larger ones came soon after. "Ow!" I staggered backward as a golf ball sized piece of hail hit my shoulder. "Ow!" a baseball sized piece of hail hit my leg, knocking it out from under me. "Son of a bitch!" I cried, hitting the frozen ground. With the last of my strength, I struggled back to my legs, fighting the wind and hail as I struggled to find some cover.

Then I felt the pain in my side. It was a large stinging pain that radiated out across the whole left side of my body. I could feel it in my left arm and leg. It then dulled, becoming more a powerful throbbing pain. I could feel the blood.

That was good. I dropped to my knees as Kyurem stopped the Blizzard. With one final "ow" I fell face-first into the cold snow. Weakly rolled onto my back and looked toward the battlefield, where Kyurem was blast poor Orion again. The kid was on the ground, clinging to the pedestal for dear life.

When the howling cold winds of the attack died down, Orion slowly stood back up, throwing himself over the rock, "I… I won't let you… let you take my friend..." he weakly said, obviously hurt from the Blizzard. "I… I won't let you..."

"Then you have chosen your fate," Taen said grimly. "Kyurem, Glaciate."

This guy… he was about to _kill_ Orion. He was about to kill a _kid_! My body hurt from being hit by all the large chucks of hail and there were several cuts from shards of ice. I felt numb all over, but I struggled to stand up, fumbling for my PokéBalls. I couldn't stand by and let this happen... Dragons… they're weak to Fairy, right? Alice might… Alice might… I collapsed to the ground.

Kyurem had formed a massive ball of ice above it's head, and fired it straight down at Orion. "Orion..." I muttered weakly, only able to watch as the ball of ice got closer and closer and closer and…

… and was completely destroyed by the huge eruption of fire from the rock. Orion, who was collapsed over the rock, seemed completely unharmed by it. The ice ball melted into water, harmlessly hitting the ground.

Taen only laughed. He seems to do that a lot. "So… I was right, then. I knew I was all along." The cultist smirked with pride. "It worked – hook, line, and sinker. Now, to reel it in. Kyurem, finish off the boy. Immediately."

The ice dragon growled with reluctant obedience, and fired off another ice ball.

And once again, the rock destroyed it with a ball of fire.

But this time, the stone began rising up off the pedestal. Orion slid off, landing on the ground in a motionless heap with a crunch of the snow beneath him.

That didn't look good.

The rock was now spinning rapidly in mid air, before a bright firey-red aura covered it, rapidly expanding outward. With a loud, powerful cry of an unknown Pokémon, the aura burst apart, revealing a large white dragon in place of the stone.

Reshiram.

The white dragon rose up into the air, and launched a huge sphere of fire at Kyurem. The attack connected, and with a loud screech, the ice dragon dropped to its feet on the ground, preparing a retaliation.

The other dragon wasn't going to give Kyurem that chance. Reshiram's tail burned red, and the Legendary dragon shot off into the sky like a rocket leaving a trail of smoke and embers behind.

Taen growled out. "Don't let him get away!" he shouted to his dragon, jumping onto its back. "Get after it! Now!" Kyurem roared one last time, before launching off into the sky with the cultist on its back.

And all was quiet in the Gym.

Snow and ice covered most surfaces – I'm pretty sure those plants might not make it another day. Fortunately, it looked as if most of the other people in the Gym had already fled. I guess that's good. Maybe they went to get help. I could use it, and so could Orion by the looks of it.

Orion! He still hadn't gotten up…

"Son of a bitch," I muttered, rising to my feet. I still hurt all over, but I couldn't lay around and wait anymore. Snow crunched and ice cracked under my feet as I walked toward the crumpled form of Orion. "Please be okay… please be okay… please be okay..." I kept muttering. And then I collapsed again, hitting the cold snow.

"Alyssa!"

It's Martin. I push myself back up to my knees. Martin is running over, looking almost completely untouched, save for the slightly crooked glasses. "You lucky bastard..." Martin wordlessly pulls me up to my feet again, holding me up. "Orion..." I croaked. Orion… please be okay…

"I know, Martin replied. "Ally! Check on Orion!" he shouts, as he starts helping me toward the fallen boy. "Don't worry, Alyssa… I'm… I'm sure he's fine." But he's lacking confidence in his voice.

Martin lowered me down to the ground on the nice soft grass of the battlefield. Reshiram's fire must have melted the snow and ice here – and it's really warm. I closed my eyes for a moment, just basking in the heat. It felt so good.

But then I really started to feel the pain again. I don't think I'm okay… I _can't_ be okay. "Ugh..." I look down at myself, assessing the damage. And it was a lot of damage. My arms were covered in cuts and bruises. My left arm had a rather large gash in it, and blood was running down my arm. My legs fared a bit better, but were still pretty cut up, no thanks to the stupid skirt. My left side, though. There was a huge cut in it, with blood seeping out, staining the light blue tank top around it.

Oh… that doesn't look good. And the fact that it doesn't hurt is even worse.

I placed my hand over the wound, trying to ignore the warm liquid coming from it, and looked up. Martin and Ally were crouching over Orion. The kid still hadn't moved. "How… how is he?" I managed to ask, though it was getting harder and harder to speak. "Is he… okay?"

"Just relax, Alyssa," Ally said, looking over her shoulder at me. "He's alive… barely. We need to get him help."

"Then go!" Nora walked over, supporting a beat up and bleeding Harmony on her shoulder. At least Harmony was up. "I'll stay here with them – you two go find help. Both of you!" Nora was in pretty good condition as well, not a scratch on her. "I can stay here with them! Just go!"

My eyes were beginning to grow heavy as Martin and Ally shot each other a look. "Well, come on!" Martin shouted to the genius. "What are you waiting for?" The duo stood up and ran out the door.

I flopped over onto my side – the non hurt side. It was beginning to hurt to sit up. I closed my eyes… wait. Isn't it bad to close your eyes… in a situation like… like this? Ergh. I forced them open again.

Nora was leaning over me, with a dopey comforting smile on her face. "Don't worry, Alyssa. You're going to be alright. All of you are. I have a plan."

My eyes drooped again. "Oh… that's… that's good," I murmured. The world was fading away. My eyes shut completely. I couldn't force them back open. "…that's good..." and I drifted off into darkness.

* * *

I cracked an eye open, and they were instantly flooded by a bright light. Oh shit… I went into the light didn't I? Both eyes snapped open, and when I recovered from the bright light… "This isn't heaven," I groaned, sitting up in my bed. This is my room in the Pokémon Center.

I shook of the groggy feeling of sleep, and looked around. Things seemed… normal. Was that all a dream? I looked down at my arms – I saw the faint scars from the ice shards all along my arms. "What?" I was still wearing the tank top – still with the hole and still coated in blood.

But the wound was gone. Just a small pink line across my side.

"Okay… that's good. I think." What happened?

Crawling out of bed, I realized that I wasn't weak anymore. I was able to move around perfectly fine. No pain. A quick glance in the mirror showed the burns around my eyes from Henry's fire was gone as well. Aside from the small pink scars… I looked pretty hot. Okay… that might be a biased opinion, but if Beckett were here, he would've confirmed it.

Long story short… some doctor somewhere is getting a huge medal for this. I was pretty tore up before – but now I'm fine. That's a plus.

I quickly changed into some blood-free clothes – my old jumpsuit, from the Cult of Darkrai. It still had some holes on the shoulders and knees, but it was clean. I had washed it myself. I took a deep inhale of the sleeve. I had no idea what it smelled like, but it smelled familiar, and that's what counts.

Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I went out into the Pokémon Center lobby – which turned out to be completely empty save for one person. Nora was sitting on the nurse's desk, swinging her legs as she stared down at her phone.

"Um… hi?"

Nora looked up. "Well, it's about time you got up," she said, giving me a warm smile. "Even Orion was up before you were, and he was a lot worse off." The green-haired girl shoved her phone into her pocket as she jumped off the desk. "You feeling okay? You look a lot better."

"I feel a lot better," I answered. "I feel fine. Where is everyone?"

"They're all at the Gym. The place is still a wreck. It's been a long time since something this exciting has happened in Suntouched City." Nora grabbed my wrist, turning my arms over and inspecting the scars. "Hm… they seemed to heal nicely. Especially for a few hours..."

"A few hours?" I blinked. That looked like too much damage for a few hours rest. "That's all it took?"

"Yup… well, five minutes, really," she replied. "The few hours of sleep you got afterward was an added bonus."

"What happened?" That's the million-dollar question right there. "The Gym… Kyurem, Reshiram… I remember blacking out… Orion. Is Orion okay? He looked pretty bad..."

"Relax, Alyssa. He's fine," Nora said. "Like I said, I had a plan."

"And that was?"

"I had Celebi use her Healing Wish on you guys," explained Nora, lowering her voice. "It was the first time that I've actually tried it on human beings, well, a human other than myself, but it seemed to work. That's why I wanted your friends out of there – I didn't want them to see Celebi."

I slowly nodded. I guess that's a plausible story… right? I don't even care, really. I feel great after almost getting the stuffing killed out of me. She could've told me she rode a golden Donphan into space to find a magic rainbow carrot to heal us, and I would've gone with it.

… okay, maybe not _that_ particular story, but you get what I mean.

"So… everything went off without a hitch? Everyone's okay?"

Nora thought for a moment. "Well, not without a hitch. Everyone's okay – Harmony and Orion are at the Gym, trying to sort things out – Reshiram came back, by the way – but the healing process took longer than I thought… so your friends came back in the middle of it." She let out a breath. "I had to tell them about me and Celebi. But I didn't tell them about you and Mew. I swear."

"… you think they can be trusted?"

"You trust them, Alyssa. So I'll trust them."

I think that was the moment that I began to realize just how much faith Nora was putting into me. She was trusting two people she didn't even know, simply because she thought I trusted them. And I do… to an extent. I just don't really fully trust anyone anymore. But I didn't tell Nora that. "They're trustworthy… they won't betray you."

"I know they won't." Nora nodded slowly. "But let's not dwell on this subject any longer. What happened happened. Everyone walked away alive, Orion still has his friend, all's good. And we… we still have a long journey ahead of us, right?"

"Right."

"And it's best that we leave now. There's going to be a lot of questions about what happened here, and I don't think you want to be around for that." Nora stuck her hands in her pockets. "I'm leaving now. You get your friends. We'll meet up again later." She smirked. "And I want a rematch!" Nora waved and ran out the door. "See ya later!"

"See ya..." I weakly waved back.

Saying that today had been interesting would be an understatement. But, all in all, it was a good day. The Thermal Badge was pinned to my backpack's strap, and I didn't die. No one did. That's good. And, that also means that I can finally leave Suntouched City. Don't get me wrong – it's a nice place and I could stay to train a little bit more…

...but I really just want to get the hell outta this place.

* * *

**Oh look! Two chapters in the same month? That's pretty rare. Like I said, I'm trying to do better. I want to fall into weekly Saturday updates, so we'll see how that goes. **

**I know I'm not the only one to say this, but I'm finally glad that we're out of Suntouched City. That stuff had dragged on for way too long. Statistically the Suntouched Arc (Chapters 11-14 have been some of the longest chapters to date. While I'm proud I can make such long stories out of that… that's just way too long for one city. I'm going to try to do better.**

**Coming next chapter: **Alyssa and the gang finally get back on the road, heading onto Route 3 where Martin gets a new, rather cool Pokemon, and then head into Metchi Town, where Alyssa gets in a rather untimely battle.

**Whelp, that's all she wrote. Until next chapter!**


End file.
